INNOVATIVE COACHING PROJECT CONTINUES IN INDIA AFTER SUCCESS OF COURSES IN DELHI AND KOLKATA

The Premier League’s leading international grassroots project Premier Skills, run in partnership with the British Council, has this week launched in Goa. The project will then move to the neighbouring Indian state of Kerala next week. The projects follow other successful Premier Skills pilots in India that took place in Delhi and Kolkata in early 2008.

Premier Skills is an innovative coaching project that not only helps develop the coaching skills of around 40 young coaches, but teaches them to use football as a tool for skills and community development. The project, which includes support from local partners, will also work to develop the coaches’ English language ability.

The Goa project is being led by Wolverhampton Wanderers Assistant Academy Manager Gareth Prosser. Prosser, while working in his previous role for Derby County, was part of the team that rolled out the Kolkata project in 2008 and is joined by Robert Nickolay and Daniel Nicholson, community coaches at Hull City, and Alan Dixon, a community coach at Manchester City.

The Kerala projected is being led by former Premier League star Robbie Earle and four of the participants taking part in the course are local community leaders who work with Magic Bus, one of the Premier League’s charity partners in India. Earle will be assisted by Gareth Hughes, Adam Browne and Jonathan Garside, Community Coaches from Manchester City, Portsmouth and Everton respectively. All of the coaches involved in Premier Skills are UEFA qualified coaches.

For the Premier League, Premier Skills represents its flagship international development programme and the Goa and Kerala visits follow a recent project launch in Uganda and successful pilots in Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt and Delhi and Kolkata in India.  The pilots were led by Earle and his ex-Wimbledon colleague Warren Barton.

A follow up evaluation has found that 19 of the original participants in Egypt have already secured jobs delivering community football coaching as a result of the training that they received on Premier Skills.

With this successful model now in place, a number of projects will be rolled out across Africa, India, China and South East Asia between now and 2010.

Premier Skills projects are always run in conjunction with local partners and the Goa and Kerala courses will be supported by the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF), The Goa Football Association, The Kerala Football Association, and ESPN – the Premier League’s broadcast partner in India.

As part of the training component of the course, participants will be able to develop their English language skills and subsequently build upon these using the suite of Premier Skills multi-media English language materials. These include a dedicated Premier Skills website, which when launched will also feature an online community space for participants.

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore said:

“At home the Premier League and our Clubs have a long-held commitment and reputation for investing in community and education programmes. Given our popularity and success internationally we felt it only right to take this approach to a wider community.”

“The Premier League is becoming increasingly popular in India and it is important we use our profile and reach to encourage and engage communities – the roll-out of Premier Skills projects will do just that. Our partnership with the British Council, using top coaches like Warren Barton and Robbie Earle, will help develop the skills of local youth leaders for the long term benefit of their local communities.”

British Council Chair, Lord Kinnock, said:

“This is a truly exciting, creative initiative. Football transcends race and language among people everywhere. By putting the British Council’s experience and global network together with the Premier League’s great know-how, we can reach countless young people and help to enhance their skills on the pitch, their self-development, and their understanding of other cultures.”

About the Premier League:

•   The Premier League is involved in a wide range of community projects both at home and overseas. For more information on any of these, read the Premier League Community Report at:

http://www.premierleague.com/staticFiles/a2/71/0,,12306~94626,00.pdf

•   If you want to contact the Premier League Press Office, call +44 (0)20 7864 9190

About the British Council:

•   The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.

•   We work in 110 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people.  

•   We work in the arts, education, science, sport and governance and last year reached over 128 million people.

•   We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm’s length from government.

•   Our income in 2007/08 was £565 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £197 million.

•   For more information on the work of the British Council, please contact  James Rowe at the British Council Press Office in the UK on 020 7389 4939 james.rowe@britishcouncil.org