Lifetime Training has secured a major new partnership with GLL to become the key training delivery partner to the UK’s largest sports and leisure provider.

The tie-up will see Lifetime Training providing a full range of apprenticeship programmes across GLL’s 210+ leisure centres nationwide, with a target of 500 apprenticeship starts over three years. The first learners are due to begin in February and will help towards the government target of creating 3 million more apprenticeships by 2020.

GLL managing director Mark Sesnan described the partnership as a “perfect match” because of the synergy he sees in the way both companies focus on valuing and developing their staff.

“As a social enterprise company that works in local communities, we have a responsibility to re-engage our public services with those communities and the best way we can do this is to develop people at a local level,” said Sesnan.

“The real celebration of our partnership with Lifetime is the way in which we will change people’s lives by providing a clear career pathway. Lifetime will help us get to the next level in providing flagship apprenticeships within the leisure industry.”

As part of the initiative, a range of bespoke apprenticeship programmes are being developed in association with CIMSPA, which has been instrumental in helping to improve physical activity sector apprenticeship standards through the Trailblazer initiative.

Lifetime Training client services director Nigel Wallace said the chance to collaborate on creating bespoke training programmes for the leisure sector’s leaders of tomorrow is an exciting opportunity.

“We court challenging, bespoke propositions that enable us to build a training programme that is right for the right learner at the right time. GLL has a great philosophy and an ambition that we’re keen to support,” said Wallace.

“We want people to regard leisure as a long-term, productive and aspirational career and the new training pathways that will be developed within the partnership will go a long way to achieving this.”