Step Into Sport

Step Into Sport is a national leadership & volunteering project which encourages young people to become involved in sport in their local communities. It is a joint partnership between Sports Leaders UK, Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, and is funded by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

It provides a structured pathway to attract young people into sports volunteering and to use their experience and talents to enhance sport in their local community. It concentrates on training a new generation of volunteers, aged between 14 and 19, through a network of School Sport Partnerships.

Step Into Sport builds on existing structures and programmes such as Sports Leaders UK Level 1 Awards and Youth Sport Trust Leadership Academies, to generate greater volunteer links between schools and clubs.

How does is it work?

Step ON

The first step on the Step into Sport pathway is Sport Education, a student-centred curriculum model, within which students learn to plan, manage and run their own sports seasons as part of their PE programme. Students get the chance to develop their skills as a leader and experience a variety of different leadership roles.

Step IN

TOP Link focusses on how schools can utilise key stage 4 young leaders (14-16 year olds) in school-based volunteering; giving young people their first step into active volunteering. Young leaders receive information on how they can volunteer within the school environment at interschool competitions, Multi-Skill clubs, and delivering sport and dance festivals.

Step OUT

This aspect is based on the movement of young people from school-based volunteering to community-based volunteering through the provision of placements in high quality community club environments. young people are supported in finding these placements by their school mentor and Sport Hampshire & IOW.

Community Sports Leader Award

Volunteers progress onto Community Sports Leaders Award (16 yrs +), Higher Sports Leaders Award HSLA (18 yrs+) or develop their leadership skills in a specific sport through a National Governing Body (NGB). These can be taught within or outside curriculum time.

Community Volunteering

Students aged between 16-19 years are encouraged to participate in active volunteering in their local community and sports clubs, supported by mentors. 20 students in each School Sports Partnership will be identified to join the SiS Programme, part of the Youth Sport Trust's Leadership Academy. The programme supports the leaders by providing training and guidance to help them develop new skills and use these skills through volunteer placements. They will be encouraged to complete either 50, 100 or 200 hours of volunteering throughout the year, and when completed volunteers are awarded with a nationally recognised Step Into Sport award.

The Step into Sport Online Passport

All volunteering hours completed should be logged on the Step into Sport Online Passport. If you haven’t already registered please ask your college tutor or resident Further Education Sports Coordinator to find out how.

The Online Passport should be used to record all school volunteering based hours and any community volunteering hours. If you do any Community Volunteering, either through your own placement or one identified by Sport Hampshire & IOW, make sure you add your placement via the ‘placement tab’ on your passport.