Community Sport and Health Officer Apprenticeship Level 3

You must be employed in a relevant role for a minimum of 30 hours per week. As a minimum you should have 5 GCSEs at grade 4 including English and Maths.

The Community Sport and Health Officer will be equipped with the following knowledge:

• How to initiate meaningful behaviour change based on utilising a strength and asset-based approach
• How to work with national governing bodies of sport, county sports partnerships, community organisations, the voluntary sector and sport for development agencies
• How to plan programmes of engaging and innovative activities using sport and physical activity
• How to understand social barriers and personal motivations of customers to activate local communities
• What constitutes an effective sport or physical activity programme and how to measure customer satisfaction
• Where to source and how to use customer insight to design sport and physical activity interventions – weekly coaching sessions, social skills groups, volunteering
• The funding landscape for sport, physical activity, community regeneration, addressing anti-social behaviour and public health
• How to use information technology to monitor and evaluate programmes in order to measure impact and capture outcomes
• Understanding the causes, social determinants and distribution of health inequalities
• Understanding the importance of physical activity and healthy lifestyles – basic understanding of nutrition, fitness to work, regular daily activity, mental wellbeing
• How sport and physical activity can be used to prevent, minimise and manage antisocial behaviour or low-level criminality by customers
• How to stimulate positive activities through using experiential play and animation across community assets – this will include how to adapt traditional forms of games and sports as well as utilising fun and adventure to encourage positive interaction
• The fundamental principles of safeguarding, child protection and working with vulnerable adults
• The fundamental principles of first aid in a community sport environment

The Community Sport and Health Officer will understand and be able to demonstrate and apply the following skills: 

• Successful application of tactics and strategies to empower people from inactive and hard to reach populations to take up an active lifestyle
• Successful application of a range of approaches that bring about changes in attitudes and behaviours within target communities
• Supporting people within target communities to become involved in the preparation, planning and delivery of sport and active lifestyles
• Using local insight and customer-orientated marketing skills to attract high priority groups into existing leisure, parks and sport infrastructure
• Negotiation, lobbying and brokerage skills with local partners across public health, community development and antisocial behaviour
• Demonstrate clear and effective communication techniques in order to give/receive information accurately and in a timely and positive manner
• Problem solving and effective decision making with regards the design and implementation of sport and physical activity programmes
• Writing successful funding bids to enable new, different or more opportunities to take place for sport and physical activity
• Managing disruptive behaviour of clients and customers before, during and after activities
• Managing and adapting personal behaviours to ensure provision is inclusive, customer-focused and accessible
• Building partnerships and developing meaningful relationships with local partners and stakeholders in sport and physical activity

The Community Sport and Health Officer will exhibit the following behaviours:

• A strong work ethic including attention to detail, willingness to adapt to change, and time management
• A positive attitude to work and act as a role model within their local community
• Ability to work individually and as a member of a team
• Truthful, sincere and trustworthy in their actions; can demonstrate integrity by doing the right thing; exhibits high levels of emotional intelligence
• A willingness to learn and contribute to their own continuing professional development

Apprentices will typically attend York College on a day release for the duration of the apprenticeship and work with their employer for the remainder of their contracted hours. During their time in College, apprentices will work towards developing their knowledge, skills and behaviours, and at work will consolidate their on-programme learning with the support of their employer. An assessor will visit the workplace every 8-10 weeks to discuss and monitor progress on the apprenticeship in conjunction with the employer.

Continual assessment will take place throughout the duration of the apprenticeship.

The End-Point Assessment (EPA) will comprise of 4 assessment tasks:

A work based observation lasting 90 minutes with a minimum of 4 questions asked throughout.

A Case Study Challenge. A desk Top exercise under exam conditions lasting for 2.5 hours this requires the apprentice to solve one regular problem faced in community sport and in getting inactive people to firstly become involved in, and then maintain their engagement with sport and physical activity.

There will also be a presentation and a panel interview completed sequentially. The presentation will be 12 minutes in duration and then Q&A on presentation up to 15 minutes.

The panel interview will last around 45 minutes

There are no specific College programme related costs, however you will be advised of any additional costs during your application and enrolment process.

This is a full-time course. It is not possible to combine this course with other Vocational, T Level or A Level programmes.

Community Sport and Health Officer Level 3 Apprenticeship.

Successful completers will be able to move into senior roles within the Sector - leading teams of people or specialising with certain populations, particular sports or programmes. 

On successful completion of this apprenticeship the Community Sport and Health Officer will be eligible to become an Affiliate Member of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA).

To find out more about how to become an apprentice or how to recruit an apprentice into your business, please contact York College Apprenticeship Team:

Tel: 01904 770368
Email: apprenticeships@yorkcollege.ac.uk