The third phase of the hugely successful Premier Skills initiative, run by the Premier League and the British Council will take place in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala at Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education (LNCPE) from 4 - 8 May 2016.
The course is jointly organised by the British Council and the Premier League in association with Sports Authority of India, All India Football Federation (AIFF), The Indian Football Association (west Bengal), Kerala Football Association (KFA) and Goa Football Association (GFA).
The community coaching education programme started in November 2014 and, after completing two phases of rigorous training and implementing the same in their communities, the cohort of participants will now take part in a final course in order to earn the title of ‘Coach Educator’. Once through this stage, the successful participants will be able to train new coaches back in their own communities, using the Premier Skills curriculum that they themselves had been trained using.
This intensive course will be led by Premier Skills head coaches Jeremy Weeks and Paul Hughes alongside Daniel Landstrom of Manchester City FC – all of whom have worked on Premier Skills in India previously - for 24 grassroots football coaches selected from across India.
Stages of the Phase 3 training:
Stage 1 2 – 7 February 2016: A five-day training course where the participants gained better understanding of the tutor skills needed to run adult coach training.
Stage 2 February – April 2016: The potential Coach Educators worked on their session plans in their respective communities.
Stage 3 4 – 8 May 2016: A five-day training session will be held for potential Coach Educators to run sessions for new coaches, observed and assessed by Premier League trainers. Based on assessment of their performance they will be awarded Coach Educator status.
Premier Skills uses football to develop a brighter future for young people around the world, drawing upon the global appeal of the Premier League and its expertise in delivering community programmes in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network and track record of delivery.
Through Premier Skills, young people, often including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability and to raise their self-esteem. Since Premier Skills began in 2007, 7,600 coaches and referees have been trained in 29 countries, who in turn have reached nearly 1.2 million young people.
Premier League Director of International Relations, Tim Vine said:
“India has been a major focus for Premier Skills since 2007, when we first piloted coach training courses in Delhi and Kolkata. Since then we established Kolkata Goalz, our hugely successful project which continues to engage over 1,000 young people a week in football and other activities across the city. And now we will have a group of highly trained coach educators capable of passing on what they have learnt to a new generation of other male and female coaches. And it will not stop here - we intend to build on this, working with our Indian partners to utilise these coach educators alongside expert trainers from the Premier League to help deliver more work right across India over these next three years.”
Guru Gujral, Head Society, British Council India said:
“We are delighted to kick start the concluding stage of our Phase 3 training programme, of our very successful partnership project with the Premier League in South India. We are now at a crucial milestone of the project where 24 grassroots football coaches from across India will go through the final training to be selected as Coach Educators. We look forward to the impact this new generation of football coaches will bring to their communities across the country.”