Use of indoor sports facilities for coaching

Response to parliamentary question on the use of indoor sports facilities for coaching

Written PQ 6197. Ms See Jinli Jean: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) in each of the last five years, what is the total number of indoor sports facilities used for coaching; (b) whether there are plans to increase the pool of such facilities to meet the increasing demand for commercial coaching services for sports and, if so, what is the forecasted rate of increase over the next ten years; and (c) how are such facilities being made available and affordable to micro-enterprises which offer such commercial coaching services.

1. The government seeks to encourage as many Singaporeans as possible to participate in sports and physical exercise, to support active and healthy living and promote social cohesion.
2. In tandem, we have been expanding the number of sports facilities to meet Singaporeans’ needs. These include a variety of sporting facilities in ActiveSG Sport Centres, PA community clubs, MOE school facilities that are open for public use under the Dual Use Scheme (DUS), and free-to-play sport facilities located conveniently in our housing estates.  
3. Our ActiveSG Sport Centres offer affordable subsidised rates and primarily serve the needs of the members of the public who want to play sport, rather than the needs of private coaches or commercial sports service providers. As such, the facilities in the sports centres are primarily open to bookings by members of the public and we do not track the usage by private coaches. Our sport centres also host training programmes under ActiveSG’s Academies & Clubs as well as those organised by accredited programme partners and National Sport Associations to develop our pipeline of athletes. We will continue to expand our sports facilities primarily to meet the needs of our residents and athletes.
4. SportSG supports coaches by (i) maintaining the National Registry of Coaches (NROC) and requiring some public agencies to hire only NROC-registered coaches, while also publicising their profiles for search by the general public; and (ii) upskilling them by providing free or subsidized continuing coach education (CCE) courses.