Coach education review update

After taking responsibility for licensing of coaches and officials in England from UKA, England Athletics wanted to gain relevant insight to clearly understand the scale of the changes that were required to meet the needs of the coaching community and develop a modern fit for purpose coaching system.

Consultation

The first year was spent prioritising the smooth transfer and delivery of the coach education programme but we commissioned a coaching review because we were aware that the current coach education system was developed in 2008 and some of the course content has not been reviewed in almost 10 years.

We currently have a wealth of data on who is qualified and what level. But we have limited feedback on how active coaches are, who they are, coaching and feedback on course content, and just general perceptions around development.

Through consultation and feedback, we commissioned a wide ranging piece of research. We are very grateful for the 600+ coaches and leaders who contributed their time at this stage of the review.

Findings

We caught up with our Insight Manager, Catherine Cowie, to discuss the research conducted. The video below provides an overview of the study and its key findings.

Play Video

Future plans

The scale of what is required is vast and will take time and significant investment. We won’t be able to do everything at once and we will have to make some difficult decisions on where we prioritise our resource. We are working with Scottish Athletics, Welsh Athletics, Athletics NI and UKA to develop an agreed direction of travel for longer term changes and identify the amount of investment that will be required.

Whilst we work through the final implementation planning we will continue to deliver our existing coach education programme at the same level throughout 2025. Over the last 12 months over 4000 coaches and leaders have been trained across over 400 online and in person courses.

Our course programme is constantly updated so please visit our qualifications web section to see what is currently available. We also have a range of coach development opportunities available as well as the resources available on Athletic Hub.

As we continue to deliver the current coach development offer, our recently appointed Coach Development Manager Scott Grace will be looking at how this offer can be expanded and enhanced to meet the needs of a greater range of coaches and leaders.