The new qualifications will be available from 1 August 2016 and are designed to modernise the first steps of The FA’s coaching pathway.
The purpose of the new courses is to create a clear introduction to this pathway, that is aimed at people who want to coach as a volunteer at community club level or aspire to make football coaching a career.
Coaching in Football
Both Level 1 and Level 2 courses have evolved to help address the requirements of the modern game, and have been structured so coaches can enjoy a more flexible and personal learning experience.
Lasting up to four days, the majority of the Level 1 course is spent developing the required coaching skills on the pitch, with supportive tasks now available digitally.
Crucially, coaches will now also be able to enjoy structured one-to-one guidance, from Level 1 and beyond.
The new Level 2 course lasts 10 days over three different blocks of learning and has been re-shaped to better reflect what’s required to coach specifically within youth football. It combines content from the existing FA Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Football, with elements of The FA Youth Award Modules 1 & 2. It has been put together with new content from The FA’s coach competency model.
Both qualifications have been modernised to help ensure there is a consistency in how coaching courses will be delivered at both the grassroots and elite end of the game – from Level 1 to Pro Licence – linking coaching modules to The FA’s England DNA philosophy. Anybody over 16 wanting to learn the basic skills of coaching football can apply.
The FA’s head of grassroots delivery, Les Howie, said: “The modern-day coach is ever-evolving and these changes represent a significant shift in helping us develop the quality of our grassroots coaching.
“The new Level 1 course provides more individual guided support throughout, and will help the coaches develop an understanding of their own ability.
“Many coaches have a real enthusiasm and aspiration to work in the game and continue their way through the coaching pathway, which is fantastic. By taking the key elements of the previous Level 2 and Youth Award courses, we are enabling them to do that.
“We know that the grassroots game already has a number of talented young players in the system, and we want to be able to increase that with more quality coaches working with them in youth football.
“However, we also know that a large majority of our grassroots coaches just want to be able to enjoy coaching their local team.
“Making sure they can develop, improve and learn as a coach while enjoying their football is vital. These new courses reflect our ambition to help them achieve that.”