Our current activities are focused around coach education and development at local and national levels in order to help increase the number of coaches and coach educators.
The key factor in achieving this is the delivery of Coaching Scotland (the national plan for Coaching in Scotland). Coaching Scotland lists our priorities for coaching in nine action areas:
- Expansion of the Coaching Network
- Creation of workforce development plans
- Introduction of coach awards
- Implementation of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC)
- Development of a coaching academy
- Delivery of coaching forums
- Focus on coach development
- Creation of a career pathway for coaches
- Expansion of the paid coaching workforce
Coaching Network
See the link to the Coaching Network page opposite.
Creation of workforce development plans
We are currently working with 12 governing bodies to help each of them write a development plan for the coaching workforce for their sport.
The plan identifies the size, qualifications and characteristics of the existing workforce and maps this against current and projected demand for coaching over the next 10 years.
This enables an SGB to identify any gaps in resource and helps them to produce recommendations for the development of their coaching workforce in order to meet the overall development goals for the sport.
Introduction of coach awards
We are investigating ways to increase the profile of Scottish coaches and their achievements.
Our aim is to introduce a structure of awards that can be delivered at local, regional and national level.
Implementation of UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC)
The UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC) is an endorsement of sport-specific coach education. Coaches follow an approved course of coach education and, on completion, receive a UK-recognised, certified qualification.
Introducing the UKCC means all coaches qualified at a certain level will share the same degree of competence. It recognises the role of the coach as integral to the sporting experience, from introductory to performance level.
The benefits of the UKCC will be felt by both the coach and the sport. For the coach, the UKCC will raise the profile of coaching, focus training on their needs and make skills and qualifications valid and transferable throughout the UK.
For sports, the UKCC will ensure a consistent standard of coach education between and within sports, improve the quality of the coaching experience for participants and performers and will mean employers are clearer about the skills and limitations of each level of coach, making workforce planning easier.
Currently, 13 sports have UKCC endorsed qualifications and 8 sports are in the process of developing these.
Sports coach UK is the agency leading the delivery of the UKCC, supported by sportscotland.
Development of a coaching academy
We will develop the concept of a Scottish academy of coaches that is designed to help set new standards and behaviours and to act as a catalyst and inspiration for coaches and potential coaches.
Delivery of coaching forums
We will establish regular coaches forums to encourage exchange of best practice and to provide collaborative working.
We will support the establishment of forums on a local, regional and national basis. These can be developed by a local authority, SGB, Sports Partnership or sportscotland.
Focus on coach development
We will build a continuous professional development programme to enhance coaches skills in specialist areas.
Please download the coach development workshop programme from the documents section opposite to see the full range of courses currently on offer.
Creation of a career pathway for coaches
We will establish a career pathway for coaches to align new job opportunities with a developing coaching infrastructure.
Leadership and direction will be taken from coaches to produce guidelines for paid coaches, covering areas such as job descriptions, contracts, salary levels and qualification requirements.
Expansion of the paid coaching workforce
We want to increase the paid coaching workforce (full and part time) as a starting point for the creation of leading edge communities of coaches.
From those nine action areas, we have prioritised three key actions that we will be working to achieve in our corporate plan for 2007-2011 :
- Support the development and implementation of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC) in Scotland.
- Continue to develop the Coaching Network to provide the infrastructure to deliver Coaching Scotland.
- Support the establishment of workforce development plans to enable individual sports to identify and address the needs of their coaching plans.
Our National Centres will continue to support partners in the professional development of coaches, including delivering the UKCC for specified sports.
We estimate that we will invest between £7 and £9 million in coaching over the next four years (excluding the employment of coaches).
