Northumberland Sporting Workforce Boosted
The number of sports coaches in Northumberland has increased due to a grant scheme which has provided financial support to help local people become better coaches.
The Northumberland Sport Coach Grant Award Scheme closed its doors for business at the end of September after investing over £60,000 in local coaches and sports leaders working in our local clubs, schools and leisure and community centres.
In total the scheme has supported:
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213 Community Sports Leaders - mostly young people under the age of 18
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167 newly qualified (level 1) coaches – People new to the coaching workforce
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119 Level 2 coaches – People moving up the coaching ladder and improving their qualifications
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13 Higher qualified coaches at Level 3 and 4 – People seeking to Coach at performance levels and or manage/tutor other coaches
Wider Impact in Local Communities
The number of women taking on coaching roles at all levels has received an important boost through the scheme with approximately 60% of all coaches benefiting from the scheme being women including 35% of coaches gaining awards at level 2 or above.
Sports ranging from Archery, Mountain Leadership and Triathlon have benefited. In all coaches representing 22 sports have been included. Badminton have provided the followng case study, which reflects the impact this funding has had;
In addition the scheme has provided over 100 hours of general training in important areas such as First Aid and child protection – training attended by approximately 250 coaches
Commenting on the success of the scheme Doug Lowery Executive Director at Northumberland Sport said:
“We have had a great response from new and existing coaches in Northumberland to this scheme. Clubs and other community organisations have played a great part in things too and the result has been more coaches active in local communities encouraging greater involvement in sport as well as unearthing new talented performers and the champions of tomorrow.
At a time when there are increasing demands and even expectations on volunteers to continually improve their practice and qualifications and where access to training courses is not inexpensive both in terms or money and time its has been fantastic for us to work with individuals and clubs to try and help overcome these barriers.
We are grateful to Sport England for their generous support of this scheme. Unfortunately it has come to its end and the given the success of the scheme there is a local need to build on the successes we have had and the platform created by all those coaches who have benefited from the scheme and who are out there now providing great sport for local people and local communities.”
