Former Villa star encouraging people from low-income backgrounds to take up coaching
Former Villa player and Lionness Anita Asante is among those supporting the programme offering professional bursaries.
Stars of the England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland national football teams have joined forces to support a new programme to help people from low-income backgrounds get into coaching.
Former Villa player and Lionness Anita Asante is among those supporting the initiative, alongside John Carver, Tanya Oxtoby and Rob Page. They're hoping role models will increase representation across the coaching community and help inspire future generations.
Anita told us, "The numbers aren't great, and they want to increase that access to coaching from those backgrounds. Not only do they gain skills within football but they gain life skills, confidence, transferable skills.
"Getting access to it can be quite expensive and this initiative seeks to directly address that and get a wider pool of people into this space. But it's also just the lack of overall feeling of acceptance too."
This comes as new research reveals that the cost of qualifications is the main barrier for under resourced communities in the UK to pursue coaching opportunities, with almost half (49%) saying that financial support would make them more likely to continue through the coaching pathway.
The skillset required for coaching has universal skills that branch beyond football. Teaching & mentoring (58%), motivation & self awareness (55%), organisation (53%) and analytical thinking (45%) are all transferable skills that budding coaches can take to wider opportunities away from the pitch.
In fact, almost two-thirds (62%) also believe coaching has made them more employable.
To help more people access coaching opportunities, Chase will provide fully funded access to 2,900 introductory coaching qualifications and 85 professional coaching bursaries. The programme will provide free-learning tools for volunteer coaches that will be easily accessible via their respective FA’s websites.