Last Friday the National Association of Racing Staff (NARS) held its presentation night for the first cohort of racing staff to be awarded their certificates after passing the Level 2 Mentoring, Leadership and Team Skills course.

The Racing Centre in Newmarket hosted the event, and seventeen of the twenty-four members of racing staff who had completed the twelve-week course attended the evening to receive their certificates from the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) Chief Executive Nick Rust.

The night begun with George McGrath the NARS Chief Executive thanking Jenningsbet for their sponsorship of the courses, how he first bumped into them at a parliamentary reception and asked if they would be interested in sponsoring something for the racing staff? From this a meeting was arranged in Newmarket to discuss ideas about what could benefit staff and the industry.

The course that NRAS had been keen to run was in Mentoring, to give staff skills to better mentor others, or in some cases to give them a qualification for something they already do. The idea was to have trained mentors in many yards across the country to hopefully help with the retention of staff. This proposal was put to Jenningsbet and they confirmed sponsorship in a deal for the next five years.

Greg Knight from Jenningsbet said:

We are very proud to have played a part in helping dedicated racing staff with their personal development and adding to their skillsets. At the end of the day it is the people working in the yards that keep the whole show on the road.”

It really was a pleasure to see the fruition of a lot of work and planning and to hear from those collecting their certificates on how they had grown in confidence as a result of the course.”

September 2018 saw the first cohort of staff begin their journey on the course that was taught and overseen by West Suffolk College. The course was designed and modules carefully selected by NARS, in order to make it as relevant and beneficial as possible to staff in the industry.

Nick commented:

We have many talented individuals in this sport and sometimes in the past we haven’t invested enough in them and helped to share learning across the industry. I really welcome this programme and look forward to hearing more about the fruits of it.”

All the learners who had completed the course were then called up individually to receive their certificates, one in Mentoring and one for Leadership and Team Skills.

Kevin Parsons, Union Learn Project Manager at NARS, said:

Congratulations to all who have completed and in January 2020 the course will be heading to Lambourn, anyone interested in signing up then please get in touch."