Fife Sports and Leisure Trust’s Learning, Development and Skills Pathways programme opens community leisure as a route to growth and sustainable careers. Delivered across 14 venues, it connects volunteering, work experience, traineeships, funded qualifications and staff development so people can enter, progress and build careers close to home.
The programme was developed because meaningful employment is central to individual and community wellbeing, yet more than one in five people in Scotland are economically inactive. Upfront qualification costs, limited experience, caring responsibilities and low confidence can make leisure careers feel out of reach.
In 2025/26, the programme supported 558 staff, 64 volunteers and 18 work placements.
Delivered year-round, 90 training sessions generated 1,100 staff attendances, averaging almost two sessions each week, alongside 108 National Pool Lifeguard Qualifications, 32 trained swim teachers and 24 leadership and coaching sessions. Volunteer numbers increased by 73%, from 37 to 64, and 31% secured employment at the end of their placement.
Our innovative model connects employability, education and third-sector partners directly to real opportunities and long-term progression. Paid traineeships, flexible hours, guaranteed interviews, and fully funded qualifications remove practical and financial barriers.
Performance and Development Reviews, mentoring, job shadowing, and funded learning then support continued progression.
By removing barriers to training and creating routes into paid work, the programme generates social value. People gain skills, confidence and financial independence, reducing economic inactivity. Local recruitment strengthens the workforce, retains skills within Fife and supports community leisure services, turning investment in individuals into sustainable careers and stronger communities.
Our pathways advance Scotland’s No One Left Behind approach and the Plan for Fife 2024–27 by tackling inequality and building community wealth.
Fife Sports and Leisure Trust works with partners including the Department for Work and Pensions, Developing the Young Workforce, Fife Gingerbread, Kingdom Works, schools and universities to reach people facing barriers to leisure careers.
Work Inspiration Days bring partners into leisure venues, allowing participants to experience the workplace, meet staff, explore roles and understand recruitment expectations.
Combined with 9 external careers events and 18 placements in 2025/26, they provide an accessible, welcoming introduction to leisure careers.
9 fully funded, 6-month Fife Gingerbread traineeships gave lone parents paid experience and flexible hours around caring responsibilities. Supervision, job shadowing and mentoring built confidence, workplace skills and readiness for recruitment, supporting progression into full-time roles.
Our volunteer pathway provides structured induction and role-specific training through our Volunteer Vision.
In 2025/26, 64 volunteers contributed more than 1,200 hours across 20 roles, and 31% gained employment at the end of their placement. 17 Pickleball Ambassadors helped grow the sport across Fife, showing how volunteering develops skills and expands community activity.
Our Train Smart: Active Careers initiative demonstrates the impact of removing a financial barrier. Working with Kingdom Works, we embedded a fully funded National Pool Lifeguard Qualification within a Leisure Attendant assessment centre.
The five-day qualification usually costs £280pp, potentially excluding applicants before recruitment begins. All 18 participants who completed it secured employment, entering work with lifesaving, first-aid, communication and teamwork skills that support safe community facilities. Our Rookie Lifeguard Programme begins that journey earlier, enabling young swimmers to develop lifesaving skills and see aquatics as a future career.
During 2025/26, learning covered leadership, safeguarding, equality, neurodiversity, menopause, mental health first aid and disability awareness.
Networks of 12 Mental Health First Aiders, 17 Menopause Champions and 14 Safeguarding Ambassadors bring that learning into venues, providing approachable support and strengthening safe, inclusive practice.
This approach serves an intergenerational workforce aged 16 to over 70. The Age Inclusive Matrix work uses staff forums, focus groups and training to challenge age-based assumptions. All casual staff respondents aged 18–29 and 50+ reported positive experiences, with support, job security, development and team culture identified as strengths.
Investment in people is reflected in community experience. When people feel supported, they are better equipped to provide consistent, welcoming services. In the latest customer survey, 91% said our services helped improve their health and fitness, 90% said they made a positive difference to their lives and 90% believed they positively impact their community.
Customer stories consistently identify staff encouragement and care as central to their wellbeing. Sustainability is embedded in workforce planning, partnerships and staff voice. Surveys, Performance and Development Reviews and Our People Forum representatives shape learning opportunities.
Fife Sports and Leisure Trust will sustain its Learning, Development and Skills Pathways through the Our People Plan, annual workforce planning, long-term partnerships and continued investment in internal training and assessment.
Current recruitment for a dedicated Volunteer Lead will strengthen the Volunteer Vision, expand opportunities and ensure consistent recruitment, induction, support and outcome tracking through Volunteero.
Staff feedback through surveys, Performance and Development Reviews and Our People Forum will continue to shape relevant development opportunities.
Building on Train Smart’s success, applications are already banked for the next Lifeguard Assessment Centre. We will use this proven partnership model to develop further fully funded routes into skills-shortage areas, including swimming instruction, fitness and community programmes.
We will also expand Work Inspiration Days, Fife Gingerbread traineeships, work placements and volunteering, strengthening pathways from schools, colleges and communities into employment. For existing staff, wider access to mentoring, job shadowing, coaching and leadership development will create clearer routes into specialist and management roles.
Together, these plans will open fulfilling careers to more local people while building a skilled, representative workforce that can sustain safe, welcoming leisure services across Fife.
