Wigan & Leigh College are delighted to announce that they have been given nearly £90,000 in funding from Sport England to reduce the number of students who are completing less than thirty minutes of activity each week.

Sport England’s new Strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’ puts tackling inactivity at the heart of what they do. As part of this initiative Sport England is investing £5 million into projects in colleges that will support their inactive students into regular activity.

Nationally, around one in five college students are inactive and research has shown that many come from groups that have lower socio-economic status or from ethnic groups that are less likely to be active. Colleges in the programme will target these groups specifically to reduce the activity gap between them and their student peers.

Mike Diaper, Executive Director of Community Sport said: “We are delighted to offer Wigan & Leigh College National Lottery funding to help get students active. College is a crucial time in a young person’s development. It is often the first time that activity is not a compulsory part of their study programme and therefore all too many young people become inactive. This funding will allow colleges to be innovative in addressing the needs and desires of their students to help embed activity in their lifestyle in college and for years to come.

Principal of Wigan & Leigh College, Anna Dawe said, “This funding will enable us to carry out a ‘Move for Life’ campaign and the College has appointed a Project Leader and is appointing a Level 3 Apprentice, to plan and deliver activities which focus on small but lifelong lifestyle changes.

Our students will benefit from all of the advantages that physical exercise brings including improvements to confidence, resilience, communication and team work. We are also looking to extend this campaign so staff can take part and make this a whole-College ethos in tackling inactivity.”