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Improvement of National Coaching Standards through..
Improvement of National Coaching Standards through European Co-operation.
Start date: Jan 1, 2015,
End date: Dec 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
This Erasmus+ application is a relatively large project and will involve mobility for 97 participants, who will all be VET professionals, drawn from four distinct categories:
1. Coaches employed by the Scottish FA, our member clubs or the regional Performance Schools who hold the UEFA ‘A’ or ‘B’ Coaching Licence. These VET staff are employed on a full-time basis at a variety of levels, from schools football to elite coaching. Mobility will enhance personal skills via exposure to innovative EU coaching skills & expertise in Greece (6 places) and Holland (10 places)
2. Coaching staff enrolled on the UEFA Pro Licence CPD course, the highest level of UK coaching certification. The participants enrolled on this UEFA programme with the Scottish FA generally have aspirations towards coaching at first team level at the highest echelons in the game. This group will comprise both male and female participants and will involve mobility to Czech Republic (25 places).
3. Coaches involved in women’s football or who are actively involved in the promotion of female participation in Scottish football will travel to Denmark (5 places), Spain (5 places) or Portugal (5 places).
4. Coaches affiliated to the six Scottish FA Regional Centres. This group will comprise community coaches employed by the Scottish FA and/or Local Councils who are working at a community and grassroots level. Mobility will include partners Portugal (15 places), Spain (7 places), Denmark (7 places) and Belgium (12 places).
The Scottish FA has firmly embedded European mobility at the centre of it’s coach education programmes and the participant coaches will bring back European methodologies and new training techniques which will be cascaded through their own employer organisation and also through the Scottish FA's extensive club, regional, community and grassroots networks.
The specific project objectives are summarised below:
1. To provide participants with the opportunity to acquire the skills involved in the theory, practice and delivery of the most advanced coaching technologies and processes available in Europe.
2. To enhance the national skills base among our VET staff who are involved in the delivery of football coaching to professional, community and grassroots clubs.
3. To reduce unemployment rates and enhance employability of participants through the acquisition of additional skills and qualifications as a direct result of undertaking European mobility.
4. To improve career progression for mobility participants as a direct result of the innovative skills and competences acquired during the mobility.
5. To monitor employment rates among mobility participants and compare the data with statistics obtained from coaching personnel who have not participated in European mobility.
6. To improve the skills and knowledge base among coaches in Women’s football and increase participation to levels comparable with European countries.
All of the host partners have an established track record of excellence in relation to hosting and integrating participants within the work place. The seven receiving partners have all been selected on the basis of them being internationally recognised Centres of Excellence in their own particular area of expertise and their natural fit with the project objectives.
This mobility project will forge stronger links between VET providers in Scotland and seven other European countries and will lead to a new way of strategic thinking for the participating mobility coaches on their return to Scotland, irrespective of whether they operate at the elite, community or grassroots level of the game. The innovative coaching skills and competences derived from the mobility experience will become apparent on the professional and personal levels where they will see that planned methodical research must replace chance development in their teaching as they strive to help build world class coaching programmes and elite player development pathways on a national basis.
The Scottish FA will allocate a sum equivalent to 10% of the total budget to fund dissemination before, during and after the mobility period. Dissemination activities will not be a separate component of the project, rather they will be embedded throughout as this is integral to creating a wider impact.
A key factor in strengthening the links between the VET providers in this project will involve a project level evaluation process, whereby the host and lead partner in each mobility trip will evaluate their own role and that of each other in the success of the mobility placements. This institutional evaluation process will then be correlated with the analysis and review of individual participant evaluation reports. This, together with the capture of employment data, participant feedback, skills acquisition measurements, participation rates, VET partner feedback and VET provider collaboration will provide clear evidence of the attainment of the specific project objectives.