Work-based placement learning
Work-based placements in the sport and physical activity sector offer valuable opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience and develop essential skills that will benefit them throughout their careers. However, it is not only students who benefit from work-based placements.
Why offer work-based placements?
For employers hosting students on work-based placements, it offers access to a pool of talented and motivated individuals who can contribute to their operations while gaining valuable insights into the latest trends and best practices in the field. Placements allow employers to assess potential future employees in real-world scenarios, often resulting in strong recruitment pathways.
Hosting placements can also enhance an employer’s reputation within the sector, demonstrating their commitment to developing the next generation of professionals in sport and physical activity.
Overall, work-based placements offer mutual benefits, enhancing both students’ career prospects and employers’ ability to cultivate a skilled, future-ready workforce.
CIMSPA work-based placement guidance
CIMSPA have developed work-based placement guidance to support employers with achieving best practice when offering work-based placements.
Shaped by leading organisations in sport and physical activity, the guidance will help employers and education providers better understand the minimum standards for supporting work-based placements. The guidance is a resource for your organisation to use and adapt, to enable education providers and employers to enhance and develop your work-based and placement learning provision for students across the sector.
The guide covers:
- types of work-based and placement learning opportunities
- responsibilities of employers, education providers and students
- guidance for assessments
- template forms and documents that can be adapted for different organisations.
This guidance will allow all parties involved to set clear expectations on what is offered and managed during work-based learning.
Work-based placements in Scotland
Placement Agreements for Students in Sport (PASS)
The Placement Agreements for Students in Sport (PASS) programme aims to create clear mechanisms that can help to design and build high quality and effective work-based placements for Scottish students in sport.
To do that, sportscotland are working with Scottish Student Sport, CIMSPA and a range of partners and institutions across the sport and education sectors.
We know that work-based learning experiences can develop skills, helping young people reach positive destinations. Placements in sport can also help the economy, boosting employability for students by building connections with employers and preparing them for a variety of roles in the sport sector.
The sportscotland sport placements section and PASS tools aim to help students, colleges, and employers get the most from the sporting system, by guiding and sharing good practice, offering tools that can assist in placement design, and by informing and connecting placement opportunities.