Our conversation with Nicola from the Kirkcaldy Sports and Leisure Alliance is a testament to the incredible strides being made in intertwining health, wellbeing, and employability through innovative school programs. We take you behind the scenes of this groundbreaking initiative that has already involved 60 young people across multiple schools, offering a blueprint for communities everywhere to nurture the next generation.
The future is bright in Fife, with bold leadership paving the way for exciting new projects that promise to make schools a thriving place for students to grow, not just academically, but in all aspects of life. Join us for this episode, and be part of the conversation that's shaping a supportive and innovative environment for our youth.
Our conversation with Nicola from the Kirkcaldy Sports and Leisure Alliance is a testament to the incredible strides being made in intertwining health, wellbeing, and employability through innovative school programs. We take you behind the scenes of this groundbreaking initiative that has already involved 60 young people across multiple schools, offering a blueprint for communities everywhere to nurture the next generation.
The future is bright in Fife, with bold leadership paving the way for exciting new projects that promise to make schools a thriving place for students to grow, not just academically, but in all aspects of life. Join us for this episode, and be part of the conversation that's shaping a supportive and innovative environment for our youth.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. What are you doing? Just looking at our Instagram stories.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I thought you were just like corresponding, just doing personal correspondence.
Speaker 1:
No, no, no. I've been posting on our stories today because we're at the Youth Sports Trust event and. Telford.
Speaker 2:
Enter what Enter? National Centre, my goodness, that was a cue up there. Whoa, whoa, that's the sound that Rebecca often makes. I think we've already talked about it in the podcast, but if you ask her a question in the background, well, maybe we have talked about it, but you go huh, very, very similar to that of a seagull, seagull if you've watched our ics on Instagram Instagram, then you'll know what that's true.
Speaker 1:
That's true, let's go back yeah, we are here in Telford. We are at our first ever Youth Sports Trust Conference. It has been the busiest one for the longest time that they can remember and we have learned so much stuff, spoken to so many people we have.
Speaker 2:
We sponsored an award last night at the award ceremony in which you were up on the stage handing over the award.
Speaker 1:
I was indeed.
Speaker 2:
Yes, you were a bit nervous, but you did very well and you didn't fall.
Speaker 1:
Well, that was the main thing I was concerned about. It wasn't the presenting of the awards, it was the heels, it was the main thing I was hoping for.
Speaker 2:
That's why I filmed the whole thing, but luckily you didn't, because it would have been a bit of a shame.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it would have been a bit of a shame, wouldn't it?
Speaker 2:
So we're here.
Speaker 1:
Youth Sports Trust, it's a kind of it's almost like awarding bodies and kind of kind of a real kind of higher echelons of sport. If that's a word, yeah, no, I don't, that is a word, I'll google after this. But, um, yeah, there's so many different exhibitors here, from lego to class for kids. We've seen cricket companies, we've seen other sort of educational programs um exhibiting and I think it's just a different demographic and it's great to be able to experience that I.
Speaker 1:
I mean it's mainly around school activities getting involved in schools wraparound care and who you speak to in that case you know like is it the head teacher. Who do you have to have on side senior leadership group? So it's just been a really insightful day and I've had a great time.
Speaker 2:
And going back to the presentation of the award last night, we had the opportunity today to talk to the winner of the award.
Speaker 1:
Yes, she called by our stall just to say thanks for the award. Not that it was on us, it's on the Youth Sports Trust and everybody that's been involved in deciding who wins within the trust itself. But yes, she called by our stall today. Nicola and her colleague Darren called by and we managed to get them on the podcast.
Speaker 2:
Let's go to that right now in this little short edition of Into the Club.
Speaker 1:
So we're at the Youth Sports Trust Conference. I'm sat with Nicola and you are the winner of the award ceremony that we sponsored yesterday, and you're from the Kirkcaldy Sports and Leisure Alliance.
Speaker 3:
Yes, that's right. It's been a brilliant event so far. We've had a fantastic time and just totally honoured and humbled to have been the recipient of that award. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1:
Not at all. It was an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the stage. Obviously, the Youth Sports Trust presented that, but being the sponsor, it's nice to have been able to get to know you a little bit more just today. So tell us a little bit about when you started the Alliance and what you've achieved so far to date.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So we kind of had a bit of an idea about developing a locality project in August 23. And then the opportunity of the Youth Sports Trust came along and my colleague Darren Wilson and I kind of got together and said let's just make this happen, because it sounded like such a brilliant opportunity. We started to then think about where in Fife might we place the project. So we looked at the health and wellbeing statistics, we looked at what the employability sectors would be and we landed on Kirkcaldy. So that was where we decided to base the project. And then we went about enlisting the support of partners to support us with that work and, of course, all the senior leaders in the schools in Kirkcaldy to get them on board to identify the right young people to be part of it. So currently we've got 60 young people across Kirkcaldy involved in the project, which is just fantastic.
Speaker 1:
It's absolutely amazing we were just chatting before this podcast but in the short space of time that you've been running to have four schools on board, headteachers brought in senior leadership, brought in 60 kids and plans to expand and to grow that, what would you say has been key to building that business model out?
Speaker 3:
you think it's getting the right people on sides yeah, I mean I think you have to be absolutely enthusiastic, passionate and committed to getting it done. A little bit of tenacity, because if you believe it's the right thing to do, I suppose it's that moral purpose you want to get it right for the young people, and that's really what makes me get out of bed in the morning. So I think when you have that enthusiasm, you're able to convince other people about things that are a good thing to do. So for us it's been a real joy getting other people on board and partners have been amazing. They're just so receptive to wanting to be part of it and really to support our young people, I suppose to get the best opportunities in terms of their well-being, but also possibly future employments within many of the industries that's in that local area.
Speaker 1:
And I think it's important when you're looking to expand sort of your brand and your business, it's important to get the right partners on side and it's almost that they align with the value of what you stand for. So I guess one of my questions to you would be what is kind of the mission of the alliance like? What are you hoping to achieve?
Speaker 3:
long term. So the mission of the alliance is really to say that the school is, it's just a building, it's actually the community that's really important around that and that everybody has a responsibility in terms of making sure that young people have the right chances as part of their school career to build the skills to get the experiences of the world of work. And you know, actually looking at the leisure industry has been a really interesting thing to do that, because what colleagues in that area were telling us was they weren't getting the young people into that workforce with the right skills or the right confidence levels. So there's a real benefit for those partners to actually be part of that and they've just been wonderful in terms of the offer that they're giving to young people and that's very enriching for their school experience and their futures.
Speaker 1:
And I guess some of the listeners of this podcast want to get into schools and want to do more work with them and building out that kind of PE curriculum. What would your one piece of advice be? When you're trying to get into schools, who are the key contacts they need to be speaking to?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you definitely need to be able to speak to the right person. So I think you need to get that lever, whether that's at local authority level which would be the case of, obviously, with myself in Fife, because sometimes if you're sort of cold calling a school, they don't know who you are, so they don't know your credibility but actually if you can build the relationship from a central point of view, then that can be a really good way in. And I think local authority officers have got a really good knowledge of the data, the landscape, so they know what is actually going to be most appropriate and most relevant in different contexts. So it's that specific bit, do you know, that makes it really relevant.
Speaker 1:
Like that's a really key piece of advice, because they're almost like the, the core of it all and they can direct you on the right path. So then you're you're sort of using your time wisely absolutely so what are the plans for the alliance in the next?
Speaker 3:
oh my goodness 12 months.
Speaker 1:
What would you hope to achieve and where would you like to be in the future?
Speaker 3:
yeah, no, absolutely well.
Speaker 3:
In the next 12 months what we hope to achieve is that the target group that just now that we have will move into the S4.
Speaker 3:
So they will start to take on a mentoring and leadership role as part of the programme. So they will hopefully coach the new cohort that are coming into S3 as a group. So that effectively means we would have 120 young people actively involved in the project, means we would have 120 young people actively involved in the project and then growing on from that is really to do lots of inspirational events and really kind of planting the seed about the benefits of sports and leisure industry, benefits of well-being and keeping physically active and making sure that if you're in a school in Kirkcaldy, it's really apparent that that's very, very important. So young people will have the chance to gain some accreditation in their S4 for that, which is quite exciting. And, yeah, building that, I suppose, progression pathway for young people who can gain so much experience, even if they don't end up in a job in that industry. The skills that they will gain from the experience will support them no matter what walk of life they go into after school.
Speaker 1:
And my final question for you, nicola, before we wrap up this podcast, is how fundamental do you think doing things like this is within schools? I mean, should these things become core subjects alongside likes of maths, english and science?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I absolutely believe that our young people today have a very different need than what perhaps traditionally that we have done in schools. So I think it's very important that we recognise the needs of our young people and that we respond appropriately. And that's where that very bespoke, specific offer that's very unique to particular school areas I think is key, because young people recognise that. Then they know that you understand what their needs are and therefore they feel invested in and therefore they buy in and actually school becomes a place that's for them, not that's done to them, which I think is a really important shift. So we encourage our school leaders to be brave, to embrace new opportunities, and there's such a rich offer from businesses, employers, partners out there. It's just the perfect opportunity to work together to make it right for our young people. So it's exciting.
Speaker 1:
I think that's probably one of the best pieces of advice you've had in our podcast. I'm not joking. So thank you so much for sharing that and thank you for coming on our podcast. It's been great to catch up with you. Thanks so much for having me, much for sharing that and thank you for coming on our podcast.
Speaker 3:
It's been great to catch up with you Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:
There we are. That was really really helpful.
Speaker 2:
Nicola from Kirkcaldy there.
Speaker 1:
Yes, so she runs an alliance which is all around getting young people involved in activities, and the really interesting thing was she talked about you don't just approach schools as a standard thing. So you know, if you're going into a school, yes, you might offer a dance class or a football class, but are you thinking about what is happening in that school, in that area? Because if you're not, what you're doing is providing a standardized service, whereas if you create it to bespoke needs, what you're looking at is getting the kids actively involved, because they know that you understand them yeah, and I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's not never heard that before. Not a cookie cutter approach to it at all.
Speaker 1:
It's actually just understanding the needs of the area, of the kind of location and everything, but also that she said you know, speak to local authorities yeah once you get the local authority on site, they can pin you know, sort of put you in the right direction, pinpoint the people that you need to speak to.
Speaker 2:
It was just for the future, and it sounds like it's a model that can be absolutely rolled out everywhere.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think she's looking to expand into other areas of Fife as well and it's just really exciting and I look forward to seeing their future and what happens in the progression for both herself and Aaron.
Speaker 2:
Hopefully we can maybe get them down in the office as well. We'll get a little visit, I think, because we're kind of tied in with them now, you having presented them with an award on behalf of Youth Sports Trust Class for Kids yeah, and I think they were saying, oh, like you presented the award to us last night, it was you, wasn't it.
Speaker 1:
I said, yeah, I look a lot different in daylight. So you know, I was honest, I was transparent, I look a bit more frightening terrifying guys.
Speaker 2:
It's terrifying. But yeah, that's a little short episode from the Youth Sports Trust in the club and we'll sign off. There's not as many people here now as there was before, thankfully, because I think there's a conference going on right now. Let's do it really loud and embarrass ourselves. Yeah, let's do it. Three, two, one bye.