Premier Skills practice session in progress

Premier Skills is an international collaboration project between the Premier League and the British Council, which uses football as a tool to develop a brighter future for young people around the world.

Through Premier Skills, young people, including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability, and raise their self-esteem.   

The programme draws upon the Premier League’s global appeal and expertise in delivering community programmes in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network, track record of delivery, and world class expertise in English.

Premier Skills has worked with a range of partners in India to train over 600 coaches and referees, who in turn have reached 30,000 young people since the programme began in 2007.

How it works?

Premier Skills concentrates on three core areas:

  1. Premier League club coaches provide face-to-face training for grassroots coaches and referees, giving them the skills and support to develop their own community football projects.
  2. The programme works with local partners to set up and support community projects that address specific needs and engage marginalised or at-risk youth through regular football sessions.
  3. Teachers and learners of English are provided with a range of football-based learning materials, accessed through face-to-face training and digitally, including a dedicated website: http://premierskills.britishcouncil.org/

Coach Education programme:

A three-phase programme aimed at developing the skills and knowledge of the community coaches (Phase 1), introducing the role of coach educator (Phase 2) and developing coaches as Coach Educators (Phase 3) with the objective of cascading the Phase 1 training to new community coaches.

Referee Development programme

The Premier Skills Referee Development is a three-level training programme: 

  • Level 1 is an entry level course that enables the participant to qualify as a football referee or further develop their referee skills if they have recently qualified as a referee. The course provides an introduction to the laws of the game as well as developing the practical skills they will need to be a qualified referee.
  • Level 2 is designed for fully qualified referees with 1 – 3 years of experience at grass roots football where they are actively involved in refereeing. As a progressive learning experience, this will enable participants to demonstrate a range of competences and the potential to further develop their refereeing skills to enhance their progress to more senior level of football.
  • Level 3 is for fully qualified referees with over 4+ years of experience at grass roots football where they are actively involved in refereeing.

Kolkata Goalz (July 2011- July 2016)

Kolkata Goalz was inspired by the Premier League’s innovative Kicks programme, which has successfully engaged young people from all over England in sport and other positive activities. The inspired by Kicks programme was piloted in India and Brazil in 2011 and subsequently introduced in Indonesia and United States of America. Kolkata Goalz helped to build positive relationships between young people in high deprivation areas and the local authorities through sport.

Between 2011- 2016, it was operational in 12 venues across Kolkata, and reaching out to 1400 young people (both boys and girls) between 12-18 years of age, involved in weekly football training sessions, and other activities, including English teaching delivered by the British Council and participation in tournaments, athletics and cultural events.

External links