There is some evidence of skills shortages in the sector including:

• the industry is likely to need higher levels of management and business skills
• instructors will have to become more highly qualified to give instruction in areas of GP referrals, cardiac rehabilitation and so on, improving the professionalism of service delivery when working as personal trainers
• customer service and communication skills need to be improved – the industry needs to be perceived as more professional which will involve more specialised sales and marketing employees with improved customer service skills
• the larger the employer, the more likely they are to report each of current vacancies, hard-to-fill vacancies and skill shortages, but a large proportion of actual vacancies are amongst the smallest firms

This suggests the sector needs a better trained workforce in the future, with more demand for well qualified personnel.

Source: SkillsActive regional fact sheets, Spilsbury Research/SkillsActive 2004 and Prospects website 2004

See Occupations for future specific occupational skills needs in the Active Leisure and Learning sector.