Education and learning form a key component of the Foundation’s commitment to increasing quality and to increasing the number of people engaged in education & training.

The 1st Jason Roberts Foundation Education Coaching Pack was produced for schools in June 2007 and provides an important tool to assist teachers and football deliverers in the delivery of football coaching for young people aged between 8 – 16 years.

The Jason Roberts Foundation will produce an Education Pack on an annual basis. In support of the Education Coaching Pack for schools the Foundation will offer training programmes for education staff to assist and support the delivery of football coaching to young people.

To accelerate the Foundation’s Coach education programme, the Foundation will sponsor a number of Grenadian coaches each year to attend UK coaches training programmes.

In October 2007, 2 Coaches from Grenada attended and successfully completed the FA level 1 course at the Pavilion, Stonebridge in North West London.

The Foundation also developed a programme, which involved the coaches participating in coaching sessions delivered by Blackburn Rovers Football in the Community Team. This involved participating in schools programmes and attending soccer skills workshops.

The Foundation sees this exchange programme as an important step to develop the coaching skill base of the Foundation’s coaches based in Grenada.

The Jason Roberts Foundation completed its first Grenadian pilot programme in June 2007. The programme had seen the Foundation’s coaching team travel to 7 venues across the island engaging over 600 young people in 6 Parishes.

The Foundation targeted young people aged between 8 – 19 years working in partnership with St Georges University, Blackburn Rovers FC and the Grenadian Government to ensure that all the public schools in Grenada accessed the provision.

Young people were provided with the opportunity to learn new football coaching skills and to have a great time mixing with pupils from other local schools. The Foundation coaches focussed on providing an exciting, educational and fun experience for all young people who participated, delivering sessions, which included fun warm up games, drills that improved passing, ball control, dribbling & running with the ball. Each coaching session ended with the opportunity for all young people to participate in competitive small-sided football games.

A girl’s only session was held at St George’s University campus to provide girls and young women with an opportunity to develop their football skills.

As part of the pilot programme, the Foundation delivered a Master class football programme delivered at St Georges University. This programme had been developed further and is currently being delivered once a month increasing to twice a month in 2008.

Whilst delivering the pilot Grenada programme in June, many of the Foundation coaches identified the need for footballs to be made available for children and young people to access across the island.

By launching a campaign to provide children and young people with footballs, the Foundation will significantly impact on the participation level of football outside the Foundation’s structured programme.

Through 2008 the Foundation aims to deliver 3,000 footballs to be distributed to:

• Schools
• Parishes
• Key football deliverers
• Young people
  

The Master class football programme delivered at St Georges University, provided an intensive coaching programme for 24 young men aged 14 – 19 years who were identified through the coaching programmes delivered in each of the parishes and by Grenadian football coaches. The Master class provided a structured programme which enhanced the skills of the participants, which included a session in St Georges University fitness gym. These young people will form part of the first cohort who will undertake training to become the first of a series of assistant football coaches to support the work of the Jason Roberts Foundation in the parishes.

The Foundation is committed to delivering a Master class programme which targets the individuals who attended the first pilot session in June 2007.

The Master class has been structured to provide participants with high quality coaching sessions delivered by Foundation coaches. Young people will also access a gym programme and undertake a programme of fitness training.

An education programme will be developed to assist in the young people’s learning experience. All young people will have an opportunity to gain a coaching qualification. The Foundation coaches will provide mentoring support. Each young person will have a range of opportunities to practice coaching through the programmes delivered in the Parishes.

The Master class young people will be extended to be delivered twice per month from January 2008. Session on the importance of diet and fitness development making use of the Olympic gym will also be introduced

Girls and women’s football is one of the fastest growing sports amongst girls and young women across the UK and in a number of European countries. The Foundation seeks to enable girls and young women in Grenada with an opportunity to participate in this movement, the development of girls and women’s coaches programme and a girls tournament will highlight the numbers of girls participating in the game.

The Foundation plans deliver a number of key education programmes, which target a number of specific areas.

• Delivery of qualification training programme for coaches,
• Opportunities for coaches to access qualification exchange programmes
• Develop an Education pack to support young people participating in the master class
• Develop healthy lifestyle modules
• Develop a referee qualification course
• Deliver a skill specific courses

In support of the Education coaching pack for schools the Foundation will offer training programmes for education staff to support the implementation of the Education packs.