Sail training on ‘knife edge’ as ‘roadmap’ published

UK Outdoors, an industry body for outdoor learning and activities, has devised a roadmap for the phased restart of domestic educational visits after Easter.

This comes as Andy Robinson, chief executive of the Institute for Outdoor Learning, calls the pandemic and the Department for Education’s guidance ‘catastrophic’.

Robinson says the industry is on a ‘knife edge’ with “thousands of jobs gone and a worrying acceleration in the number of centres closing forever.”

He says: “Our £700m industry is on a knife edge. But with the right support and guidance, the sector can still be saved. Our Roadmap to Restart provides a clear and prudent proposal for a phased restart of the outdoor education sector in time for the critical summer term, giving providers a sustainable path to survival. If no action is taken and no additional support is provided, the sector stands to lose all its 16,000 jobs, snuffing out a vital British industry.”

The roadmap’s been created in tandem with the School Travel Sector Stakeholder Group and submitted to the Secretary of State, and the Department for Education.

The Association of Sail Training Organisations and the Tall Ships Youth Trust have been involved with its development.

The roadmap calls for protocols to be developed to support the safe reopening of the sector as 6,000 jobs have already been lost, with another 10,000 at risk. This comes after an estimated £600m of sector revenue has been lost.

Amongst other items the industry led consortium seeks day and overnight educational visits to resume in the summer term, a targeted restart of international educational visits in the 2021/2022 academic year and development of a government-backed insurance policy to reinstate Covid-19 pre-trip cancellation cover in both commercial insurance policies and the Department for Education’s risk protection arrangement.

UK Outdoors says educational visits play a huge role in the cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of students. The mental health benefits are well-evidenced, boosting socio-emotional learning like self-confidence, teamwork and resilience.

Educational visits also bring students closer to nature and its benefits, such as health, wellbeing and pro-environmental outcomes. Over the last ten months, so many children and young people have been locked down in cities and towns with restricted opportunities to connect with each other or with nature. The inequalities between groups of children accessing these benefits are widening.

“Sail training around the world was at a standstill at the end of 2020. It will be challenging to overcome medical and attitudinal barriers,” says Peter Cardy, chair of the TSG advisory board and MIN contributor.

“Sail training has not been top-of-mind during the pandemic. It will demand immense collaborative effort by STOs and their national bodies to recover the attention it deserves.

“There is a strong case for resuming sail training as soon as possible, to help offset some of the worst consequences of the disease and repeated lockdowns.”

Cardy says that “uncertainties resulting from the pandemic and national and local responses have changed the outlook of many sail training organisations, some of which have made major adaptations.

“But it’s important to note that the benefits of sail training are not confined to young people who are the subjects of systematic studies: they apply to people of all ages. The long pause is an opportunity to rethink how sail training can become truly inclusive and adopt new and more adaptive models.”

Comments are closed.