There are 16,300 employees in the Northern Ireland Active Leisure and Learning sector, accounting for 2.8% of UK employment in the sector.  The largest sub-sector in the country is sport and recreation (64%), followed by playwork (27%). 

20% of jobs in the sector are part-time, 64% are full-time and 16% are self-employed.  Levels of part-time employment is predicted to grow over the next 10 years.  16% of staff working in the sector are unpaid of voluntary.  The outdoors and playwork industries have higher proportions of voluntary/unpaid staff.

Employment levels in the sector are forecast to increase over the next 10 years, at around 1.9% between 2004-2009 and 0.7% between 2009-2014.  All the industries forecast increased employment levels to 2014 particularly for the health and fitness, playwork and outdoors industries.
 
17% of organisations in the sector are sole traders and 24% have fewer than 5 employees.

The gross value added (GVA) output of the sector equalled £191 million in 2004, 63.4% of which was from the sport and recreation industry.  Output in the sector is forecast to increase over the next 10 years.

Workforce profile:

• 55% of the sector workforce is female, compared to 48% in the overall Northern Ireland workforce
• 87% of those in playwork are female
• 79% of those in the caravan industry are male
• 28% of  the workforce are aged 45-59 years, raising to 38% over the next 10 years
• 6% of the workforce are 60 years plus
• 91% of the sector workforce are white
• less than 1% of the workforce are registered disabled

23% of all employees are in personal service occupations.  Over the next ten years, the number of managerial and secretarial occupations will increase 2.6% annually.  The number of skilled trades occupations is expected to decrease over the same period.

The distribution of qualification levels held by the sector workforce is similar to the average for the whole Northern Ireland economy.  A high proportion of the workforce have Level 4 and 5 qualifications (37%), compared to 30% in the whole Northern Ireland economy.  A relatively small proportion of the sector workforce are qualified to Levels 1 and 2, or have no qualifications.

21% of organisations in the sector have vacancies compared to 16% in the whole Northern Ireland.  The health and fitness industry are most likely to have vacancies.  13% of organisations in the sector reported hard-to-fill vacancies, whilst 3% reported skill shortage vacancies.  These vacancies are the result of a low number of applicants with required skills and a general lack of people interested in the work.  13% of all organisations report internal skills gaps.  Skills gaps are reported for planning and preparing work, specific technical skills, team working, communication and maintaining safety, together with management skills.

Key drivers in the Northern Ireland sector include:

an increased health awareness, particularly regarding obesity and disease

an increased demand in adventure tourism

declining fertility rates may affect the demand for playwork, but may be offset by increasing opportunities for children

growing  over 50s market with time and income looking for leisure experiences

IT development and increased on-line booking

legislation and regulations

Source: Skill Needs Assessment – Northern Ireland 2006

To read more about SkillsActive’s response to the Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland (2005) see the consultation response.

Keywords
Gross value added (GVA) is the difference between the value of goods and services produced and the cost of raw materials and other inputs which are used up in production.

For more information on sector industries in Scotland, data on employment levels and the occupational profiles see:

Northern Ireland industries in the Active Leisure and Learning sector