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First sports apprenticeship is a hit with football clubs

By TJ (03-10-2007)
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Learning and Development News - First sports apprenticeship is a hit with football clubs

The Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) programme was launched in 2004 and, since then, 82 of the 92 Premiership and Football League clubs in England and Wales, including top names such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Cardiff City have taken it up. About 1,200 youngsters are now doing the two-year course.

Chris Powell, Charlton Athletic player and Chairman of The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) says: “This scheme is a major breakthrough for the football industry. I'm coming towards the end of my career as a professional player so I'm considering future options. I welcome and commend any programme that provides the skillset to maintain a career in football and then enable smooth transition out of it.”

This is not a qualification for simply "playing the game". The AASE programme has been devised by football industry bosses with their Sector Skills Council, SkillsActive, which has worked with them to develop the training they need to realise club and player potential. Traditionally, training has focused on footballing skills, without recognising the value of those skills off the pitch or the need to support them with qualifications that would benefit both athletes and sport in the longer term.

18 year old Matt Goodwin achieved his apprenticeship at Leicester City FC, but an injury forced him to retire from football. However, with the skills he gained though AASE, he has now taken another career route and is studying Sports and Exercise Sciences at Loughborough University. On the AASE course, he spent ten hours a week in college, studying such subjects as fitness, nutrition and psychology for sports performance, and nine hours training on the pitch, plus weekly matches.

“This apprenticeship is my passport to a better career. Being a great footballer is not just about the practical side of playing the sport,” says Matt. “A professional sportsperson should also understand such issues as fitness and nutrition and have the opportunity to develop specialist skills in coaching or officiating, for example. This apprenticeship offers a grounding in all these skills.

“Not being able to gain a permanent contract, I still wanted to work in another area of sport, so the skills I learnt were equally invaluable.”

The importance of AASE to the world of sport cannot be underestimated. Footballers' careers, like those of most athletes, are in decline by their early thirties and are likely to be over well before their fortieth birthday. Many professionals will have a shortened career due to injury, loss of form or employer financial constraints. It is also still the case that many of our sports men and women, who today represent their nation on the world stage, often rely on second careers as their major sources of income.

To find out more about the apprenticeship scheme visit http://www.skillsactive.com/

 

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