The application seeks funding for a total of 69 participants drawn from three categories of VET staff: 1. Community and grassroots coaches employed by local football clubs, local councils and schools within Northern Ireland. 2. Coaches involved in Women’s football. 3. Coaches involved in Disability football. For the first year this will involve both disabled (cerebral palsy) and mainstream participant coaches. The Irish FA has been involved in European mobility programmes for the past five years, since its first funding award in 2009 for a Leonardo da Vinci VETPRO project. Since that time the Irish FA has successfully completed a total of six mobility projects under the Lifelong Learning Programme which has involved both VET staff (coaches) and VET learners (trainee players). The outcomes of these projects and the competences acquired by the participants has resulted in an across the board improvement in standards of coach education in Northern Ireland at all levels, from grassroots to professional. Participation rates in women’s football and disabled football has seen a consistent and progressive rise over the same period. Previous Leonardo da Vinci mobility projects have demonstrated that mobility consistently enhances the employability, career progression and teaching ability of our coaches and facilitates a more structured development pathway. The three receiving partners in Portugal and Spain, have all been selected on the basis of them being internationally recognised Centres of Excellence. Portugal and Spain are renowned as countries which have championed the development and expansion of women’s football at all levels. Spain are the current World Champions and the national coaching expertise and player development programmes in men’s, women’s and disability football are unparalleled in world football. Spain and Portugal excelled in the field of youth development coaching, with strong vertical links between professional clubs and community player development programmes. Surveys of participant employers in Northern Ireland and the UK have identified Spain and Portugal as the mobility host countries most likely to have a positive effect on employability. Paralisia Cerebral – Associação Nacional de Desporto (PCAND) is the national association for cerebral palsy sport in Portugal. PCAND has been appointed as the host organisation selected by CPISRA (Governing Body for Cerebral Palsy Sport) to host the 2014 CPISRA Football 7-a-side European Championships. All of the top international cerebral palsy teams in Europe will contest the tournament. PCAND and the competing teams have agreed to allow full access for the Northern Irish disability coaches to study and assess the training and coaching procedures which will be utilized by the different participating teams. This will allow participants to compare and contrast the differing procedures and to discuss them with the relevant disability coaches. The outcomes of this project will be the acquisition of innovative coaching skills by participants as measured by: 1. Increased personal and professional skills among participants. 2. Increased employability for participants. 3. Decreased risk of future unemployment. 4. Enhanced coaching skills for women’s coaches and increased participation rates in Women’s Football at all age groups. 5. Increased skills levels among disabled players as a result of improved coaching skills of their coaches. The relevance of this project to improving the employability of participants is validated by employer surveys which conclusively indicate that candidates with European coaching experience are much more likely to be short-listed for interview or offered employment, indicating that these skills are in demand in the UK labour market. One of the key aspirations of this project is to use the mobility work placements to bring together ideas and innovation, to identify and develop elite players and improve talent development within Northern Ireland through a clear and identifiable route through the schools, community and grassroots coaching frameworks. Work programmes for women’s football coaches and disability coaches will place a strong emphasis on studying how young talented players are identified at the earliest opportunity and how that talent is supported and sustained through the community and grassroots infrastructure in the European partner countries. These studies will be crucial to the employability of the participant coaches but will also be pivotal in increasing participation rates in women’s and disabled football in Northern Ireland. These mobility outcomes will have a significant impact on the restructuring of the Irish FA regional talent identification programmes in women’s and disability football. As such mobility will have a major impact in these sectors on a local, regional and national basis.