Blog
City of Glasgow College and Step Count Challenge
As well as our national challenges we also offer bespoke Step Count Challenges for workplaces. City of Glasgow College recently ran a challenge for their staff and students. Sports Coordinator Andrew Kirk took some time to tell us about their challenge and the difference it made for their teams.
Throughout the pandemic, the health and wellbeing of our staff and students has never been more important. The two week Step Count Challenge aimed to engage both staff and students in physical activity, which is such a powerful mechanism for improving physical health and combating mental health issues. We were keen on ensuring that everyone taking part had a place, whether that was a participant wanting to take up walking or running for the first time, or someone more competitive who wanted to log as many steps as they could per day.
We managed to engage 14 staff and 12 student teams in the challenge. This kept the challenge light hearted whilst also appealing to the more competitive ones amongst us.
We took sign-ups for the Step Count Challenge one week beforehand. We used a combination of social media, emails, staff/student hubs and more to fully engage and be inclusive of all participants. We also set up a website page to make the challenge look a bit more professional and coherent for participants to follow.
26 teams in total signed up. In total, 17, 043, 631 steps were registered. The staff teams totalled 10, 125, 294 steps. The student teams totalled 6,918,337 steps. Prizes were offered for the winning staff team, the winning student team and best image.
So far the feedback has been positive as the following participant quotes show:
“I loved taking part in the step count challenge! I had been getting into a bad habit working from home not moving enough. Making a commitment to take part gave me the incentive and peer pressure I needed to get back on my feet!”
“I found the challenge very worthwhile for my whole team. It was great to see the students get involved. During the current climate, this was a perfect opportunity to engage the staff/student groups in the college.”
I have enjoyed collaborating with our Students Association on the Step Count Challenge. It has enabled my remit to have more of a focus on online engagement and physical activity, whilst the covid-19 pandemic is still amongst us. Going forward, I would definitely be open to working with the Students Association again to provide a quality service for our staff/ students.
Find out more about how to run a bespoke Step Count Challenge here.
