Truro and Penwith College has been given £126,525 from Sport England to reduce the number of their 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.

The Truro and Penwith College project will target the most inactive students at the college, building on some pilot Fit for College: Fit for Work initiatives that were successfully delivered last academic year. Students will be timetabled into bespoke physical activity sessions that will take place in the new HWS suite.

Truro College has completely refurbished a classroom, which has been converted into a HWS suite that will be a dedicated physical activity venue specifically for this project. In addition to the targeted programme, the college will be providing a student services referral programme, where students with anxiety issues, mental health challenges and other health issues, can be allocated specific individual access to the HWS suite.

Mike Diaper, executive director of community sport, said: “We are delighted to offer Truro and Penwith 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.”

Julian Wills, health, wellbeing and sport project lead at Truro and Penwith College, said: "We are delighted to be one of only four colleges from the South West region to have successfully secured this funding, and are very excited about enhancing the lives of our students through the physical activity opportunities we will be delivering."