U.K. Culture Secretary Maria Miller will "attempt to quell growing concerns over the delivery of the promised Olympic legacy" by announcing a £17M ($27.3M) investment in "college sport makers" to help students get involved in sports, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. The grassroots funding quango Sport England "will promise to fund 150 new jobs for full-time sports professionals in further education colleges over the next five years." The Department for Culture, Media and Sport "promised to concentrate much of the £1B ($1.6B) it will invest over the next five years through Sport England on youth sport and specifically the challenge of maintaining interest in physical activity after pupils leave school." The college sports makers, "consciously echoing" the name of the successful volunteer program during the Olympics, "will have a specific remit to ensure the sports on offer are attractive to young women and marketed effectively to them." More girls than boys drop out of sport in their teenage years. Sport England and the elite sport funding agency U.K. Sport "will shortly make a series of crucial decisions about how it will award its cash to governing bodies across the next four years" (GUARDIAN, 10/15).
