Fast-Track Practitioner Programme
The Fast Track Practitioner Programme assists young people in SSSM pursue careers in elite sport
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The Fast-track Practitioner Programme (FPP) - which operates in partnership with all of the home country sports institutes (HCSIs), the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations and the sports’ national governing bodies - aims to assist in the training and development of young sport science and medicine practitioners who are starting out on their careers within elite sport. Participants have backgrounds in the disciplines of physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, physiology, nutrition, performance analysis, psychology, biomechanics, talent identification, performance lifestyle and research. It is a challenging and innovative professional development programme consisting of a series of workshops as well as close on-the-job support from a suitably qualified mentor.
Since it began in 2004, over 100 young sport scientists and medics have completed the one year development programme. The FPP was managed by UK Sport throughout this period and a considerable number of practitioners currently employed within the UK high performance system have benefited from the programme, as evidenced by the results published in the FPP impact report in September 2008. The report indicated that the FPP had achieved significant impact within its original remit of providing an accelerated development opportunity to young sport science and medicine practitioners hoping to make their mark in elite sport.
In April 2009, UK Sport announced that the responsibility for the future delivery and development of the FPP was to be entrusted to the English Institute of Sport.
