Mark Shipley

I am applying for this position with the knowledge that I am confident that having studied both the job and personal specifications for the position I have the required skills, knowledge, experience along with the enthusiasm to be able to make a success of the role. Upon leaving school I was offered the opportunity to become a Professional Football player for several years initially as an apprentice then as a professional at Blackburn Rovers FC then latterly at Doncaster Rovers FC, during this time I gained my FA Coaches award before moving to a role within Wakefield Council’s Sport & Recreation Department.

My Sports Development experience began by being employed as a Local Authority Sports Facility Manager where I completed An ‘Institute of Sport & Recreation Manager Certificate’ a large element of the course content featured modules covering Sports Development, (achieving a Distinction in the Module resulting in me being invited to go to the annual ISRM conference to receive my award which was the highest individual marks of the year nationally).This provided me with an appetite for Sports Development to such an extent that my next career moves resulted in me working with 2 different National Governing Bodies of Sport for a period totalling12 years, initially as a Development Officer before progressing to Area Manager then to Regional Manager where I had responsibility of managing a regional budget to support programmes and initiatives. My role during this period included me working with coaches and teachers supporting the delivery of sports activity and promoting sustainable programmes featuring Competitive and Enrichment initiatives within an educational setting, by liaising with schools, colleges (plus sixth forms) and external agencies. It was also part of my role to record and monitor the effectiveness of these programmes to enable lessons to be learned for future initiatives, many of these programmes were particularly aimed at increasing participation by removing any social barriers to participation.

I also signposted a number of these new and prospective participants to clubs and other organisations to enable this ‘new generation ‘of players to continue their sporting journey into later life. On setting up sports participation programmes I found that it is important to differentiate between the different levels of ability and aspirations of students, from those wishing to compete at a high level to those simply wishing to exercise and play for fun. The role of sport within Education is a very important conduit to create regular sporting habits as it has been proven that sport as well as the obvious health related benefits with its impact on the health of the nation and its impact on other services such as the NHS can also significantly can improve educational achievement. As an NGB officer I was responsible for distribution of the National Investment Programme, this involved working with organisations to submit Capital Funding applications to support facility development. I also worked with clubs to write and provide support their funding bids for any planned programmes and initiatives. During this time, I regularly represented the NGB’s at meetings with, educational establishments, County Associations, Regional Forums, County Sports Partnerships.

Since 2015 I have worked on a part-time basis at Durham University initially working up to16 hours each week as Head of Squash Development and Coaching. I work with the Universities 10 BUCS teams to prepare them for their fixtures by helping to arrange; team selection fixture planning and logistics. My role entails that I work closely with University Sports Science staff to develop and deliver both competitive and casual introductory playing opportunities for students with mixed abilities to encourage them to participate in sports activity. I also work with working with the Universities Sports Science Team to identify and support any athletes who are supported by the TASS programme to develop training programmes including bespoke individual training along with group sessions. I have enlisted external players and coaches from several various sports to come and speak to the students to pass on their experience and knowledge of their own sporting journeys. I also organise a trip for students to events such as the British Open Championships for them to experience top level sport.

Since 2015 I have been an England Squash Tutor and Assessor delivering the NGB’s Coach Education Programme. To enable me to be part of the delivery team I was encouraged to participate in both a PTTLS and CTS courses which was something that I particularly enjoyed. In all my previous roles it has been a requirement for me to manage and mentor a teams of coaches to deliver coaching sessions and to up-skill and train them as part of the process. I am a strong advocate of on-going personal development as with most things in life things do change. As a demonstration of this in 2017 - 2020 I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in High Performance Sports Coaching which was coupled with the England Squash Level 4 High Performance Award.

I am applying for this position safe in the knowledge that I am confident that having studied both the job and personal specifications for the position I have the required skills, knowledge, experience along with the enthusiasm to be able to make a success of the role. Upon leaving school I was offered the opportunity to become a Professional Football player for several years initially as an apprentice then as a professional at Blackburn Rovers FC then latterly at Doncaster Rovers FC, during this time I gained my FA Coaches award before moving to a role within Wakefield Council’s Sport & Recreation Department. My Sports Development experience began by being employed as a Local Authority Sports Facility Manager where I completed An ‘Institute of Sport & Recreation Manager Certificate’ a large element of the course content featured modules covering Sports Development, (achieving a Distinction in the Module resulting in me being invited to go to the annual ISRM conference to receive my award which was the highest individual marks of the year nationally).This provided me with an appetite for Sports Development to such an extent that my next career moves resulted in me working with 2 different National Governing Bodies of Sport for a period totalling12 years, initially as a Development Officer before progressing to Area Manager then to Regional Manager where I had responsibility of managing a regional budget to support programmes and initiatives. My role during this period included me working with coaches and teachers supporting the delivery of sports activity and promoting sustainable programmes featuring Competitive and Enrichment initiatives within an educational setting, by liaising with schools, colleges (plus sixth forms) and external agencies. It was also part of my role to record and monitor the effectiveness of these programmes to enable lessons to be learned for future initiatives, many of these programmes were particularly aimed at increasing participation by removing any social barriers to participation. I also signposted a number of these new and prospective participants to clubs and other organisations to enable this ‘new generation ‘of players to continue their sporting journey into later life. On setting up sports participation programmes I found that it is important to differentiate between the different levels of ability and aspirations of students, from those wishing to compete at a high level to those simply wishing to exercise and play for fun. The role of sport within Education is a very important conduit to create regular sporting habits as it has been proven that sport as well as the obvious health related benefits with its impact on the health of the nation and its impact on other services such as the NHS can also significantly can improve educational achievement. As an NGB officer I was responsible for distribution of the National Investment Programme, this involved working with organisations to submit Capital Funding applications to support facility development. I also worked with clubs to write and provide support their funding bids for any planned programmes and initiatives. During this time, I regularly represented the NGB’s at meetings with, educational establishments, County Associations, Regional Forums, County Sports Partnerships and Sport England. Since 2015 I have worked on a part-time basis at Durham University initially working up to16 hours each week as Head of Squash Development and Coaching. I work with the Universities 10 BUCS teams to prepare them for their fixtures by helping to arrange; team selection fixture planning and logistics. My role entails that I work closely with University Sports Science staff to develop and deliver both competitive and casual introductory playing opportunities for students with mixed abilities to encourage them to participate in sports activity. I also work with working with the Universities Sports Science Team to identify and support any athletes who are supported by the TASS programme to develop training programmes including bespoke individual training along with group sessions. I have enlisted external players and coaches from several various sports to come and speak to the students to pass on their experience and knowledge of their own sporting journeys. I also organise a trip for students to events such as the British Open Championships for them to experience top level sport. Since 2015 I have been an England Squash Tutor and Assessor delivering the NGB’s Coach Education Programme. To enable me to be part of the delivery team I was encouraged to participate in both a PTTLS and CTS courses which was something that I particularly enjoyed. In all my previous roles it has been a requirement for me to manage and mentor a teams of coaches to deliver coaching sessions and to up-skill and train them as part of the process. I am a strong advocate of on-going personal development as with most things in life things do change to demonstrate this in 2017 - 2020 I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in High Performance Sports Coaching which was coupled with the England Squash Level 4 High Performance Coaching Award.

In January 2020 coinciding with the Lockdown, I was diagnosed and subsequently successfully treated for a Brain Tumour (from which I have since made a fully recovery) which resulted in me being out of full-time work apart from my P/T work at Durham University which I continued as soon as I was able to. I am currently working as a Student Support advisor at Wakefield College supporting students studying PE, Sports Science and Public Service courses who have fallen behind with their studies since the return to college. This has now encouraged me to seek further employment within both the Educational and Sports Development sectors as this is an area that know that I can excel in

I am married with 2 children in my spare time I enjoy most sports in particular playing squash and keeping fit. I also enjoy watching football, going to the theatre and cinema I am also a big music enthusiast, I also enjoy other topics such as history and geography.