Although Streetcage Sports staff number one objective is to coach and develop players of all ages and ability, we also understand that young people need to be challenged, educated, guided, supported, advised and supported to achieve goals that will enable them to stay out of trouble and aim towards a positive future.

Streetcage Sports’s Director Matthew Shannon is a trained A1 NVQ assessor and had 3 years experience as NVQ curriculum leader at West Cheshire College in Ellesmere Port, were he delivered an assessed the coaching qualification for 16 – 18 year olds.  His experience of delivering these qualifications gave him the idea of devising a programme for kids.  He went on to say

‘Why cant we educate kids to be come coaches, communicating with staff, listening, collecting and checking equipment, preparation as well as setting ground rules are all things that we are taught as a child, however they also play a major part in becoming a great coach.  This programme will challenge those youngsters’

As a result Streetcage Sports have developed a coaching programme which includes 8 Levels of achievement that can be started as young as 8 years of age and will be completed as old as 16 Years of age. Each participant identified to do the course will receive their own ‘Streetcage Sports support pack’, which coaches will keep for each participant in the area and will also include a record of achievement for each of the 8 Levels. This will take participants from young participants into fully trained assistant coaches and then onto either an F.A Coaching course or a fully qualified NVQ in Coaching.
The Levels will consist of 1 - 8 elements, which will include a number of social tasks, such as teamwork, communication, respect, environmental issues, behaviour and attitude.

There will also be a number of elements which will include skill based tasks such as dribbling, turning, skills, free style tricks and keep ups. Players will also be assessed on different aspects of team play such as passing, control, shooting, dribbling and teamwork.

The programme will then move from being assesses as a player to being assessed as a coach. This will the ‘Streetcage Sports community coach programme’, which makes up levels 9 – 10 of the programme and is designed for participants who are 16 – 24 Years of age.

So what do the Units consist of?

The Units are split up into 8 sections designed to start at 8 years of age and lead up to 16 years of age.  It doesn’t matter if a participant is 8 or 16 years of age, they will each start the course at level 1. 
The Units are as follows;

• Unit 1 – Preparing to coach – 8+

• Unit 2 – Preparing to coach – 9 +

• Unit 3 – Taking part in sessions – 11+

• Unit 4 – Taking part in coaching sessions 12 +

• Unit 5 – Preparing and leading coaching sessions 13 +

• Unit 6 – Leading a session alone + 14

• Unit 7 – Delivering and Evaluating + 15

• Unit 8 – Evaluating and improving performance + 16

So where will this programme be delivered?

The Streetcage Sports coaching programme will be delivered across selected cages in The North West, Primary & Secondary Schools as well as F.A accredited training centres, where Streetcage Sports and F.A Coach education staff will deliver courses.  Streetcage Sports will deliver the first of its projects across Neston & Ellesmere Port in July 2008.

So what will children achieve?

In order for children to improve citizenship and develop throughout life, we must reward children as a way of highlighting achievements and recognising the hard work that they have put into sessions. Streetcage Sports will reward children with certificates for every level they achieve but will also host an annual awards ceremony, where awards will be given out for outstanding achievements as well as participants that complete the programme.  These certificates will hopefully be used to show a desire to want to become a trained coach.  Any youth who reaches 16 years of age and achieves all 8 levels will have funding to go on and achieve their F.A Level Certificate in Coaching football.

Youths completing levels 9 – 10 will receive an F.A accreditation in coaching or a full qualified NVQ Certificate in coaching. Youths will then be encouraged to stay involved with the programme either as a volunteer or fully trained member of staff.

Streetcage Sports Education plan & Costings

The education plan is delivered as an additional to any coaching sessions that take place and are only delivered to those youths who we feel have the attributes to complete the course.  The education course is delivered during the coaching sessions that take place for all youths, however those on programme will spend a little more time with one of the two coaches.

The provider will then decide with Streetcage Sports & the Youths involved, how many levels they would like to achieve based on the time frame available and clients will only be charged based on the child achieving the level.  These Youths will then work on their portfolios and sessions with the coaching staff.

Each of the selected Youths on the programme will receive the following;

• A Portfolio with performance criteria for each checklist

• Additional evidence unit to collect references, reports, photographs, etc

• A ‘Trainee Coach’ t-shirt and kit

• One to support with each of the Units in the file

Coaching sessions

The cost of the ‘Coaching sessions’ work out at £25 per hour per coach, with sessions normally being for 2 or 3 hours and are delivered by 2 qualified coaching staff.  The ratio of staff to children is 12 – 1 and so is based on a maximum of 24 youths attending the sessions.  The cost for each session normally reads;

2 x Coaching staff x 2 hours = £100           Hour 1 –         8 – 12 years of age
                                                                        Hour 2 -          13 - 16 years of age  

2 x Coaching staff x 3 hours = £150           Hour 1 –         8 – 10 years of age
                                                                        Hour 2 -          11 - 13 years of age  
                                                                        Hour 3 -          14 – 16 years of age

           
Coach Education programme

The costing of each Unit works out £25 per level achieved per person and will only be invoiced once the person achieves the Unit.  This price includes

• Portfolio building and file

• One to one support with coaching & evaluation

• Assessment of performance criteria checklists

• Certificate of achievement

e.g If 1young person achieves Level 1, the cost will be £25, levels 1 – 4, the cost will £100 and levels 1 – 8 will cost £200.

What are the benefits for the customer?

Some similar education based organisations will charge a set amount for a course, which will normally be anything from £200 - £300 per person. This is set fee and regardless of participants passing or failing, the amounts is non refundable.
It would be easy to let every participant achieve but then are we preparing them for a coaching badge? Are we giving them the correct skills? Would our course carry any credibility, No. 

So based on all the current course structures, Streetcage Sports have split the charges up of courses for each individual unit meaning that participants can complete in sections based on their current age and ability.  There are many benefits for the client, which include

• The process of identifying participants is realistic

• The assessment procedure is honest and fair

• The participant only achieves if they are up to standard

• The client only pays if the participant is successful and so any pays for 100% success

• The client is not paying a total amount regardless of the participant achieving or even worse failing, these are included in the coaching costs.

• Extra funding left over from participants only achieving a certain level can then be used to get more youths through the course and make the best use of all the funds as long as coaching sessions have been paid for.

Streetcage Sports believe that our new education programme will encourage more organisations to get involved as there is no risk involved only success.  The consequences of training up children will encourage youths to assist staff in centres across The North West making the lives of coaches and youth workers much easier, as well as giving the participant the opportunity to develop themselves.

How we can we find out more?

To find out more about the programme simply e-mail Streetcagesoccer@msn.com with your e-mail titled ‘Education programme info’ and we will arrange a one to one consultation to find out how we can help you.  Alternatively you can call Matt on 0775 289 8284 and if we are not available to speak just leave your name, number a brief message and I will return the call as soon as possible.