Teaching Excellence and Widening Participation : EFL Trust and USW Degree Wins Two National Awards
Last night the EFL Trust’s partnership with the University of South Wales (USW) received two awards at the Advance HE Awards, celebrating their contribution to the education sector. The USW and EFL Trust Community Football Coaching and Development programme won The ‘Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence’ and also a Spotlight Award for widening participation.
The Spotlight Award acknowledged the degree’s contribution to widening participation and social inclusion, by engaging individuals in otherwise hard to reach areas of the UK. The unique reached is achieved through EFL Trust and its network of Football Club Community Organisations linked to EFL Football Clubs across the county.
The Community Football Coaching and Development degree has been designed in conjunction with the EFL Trust, in order to identify the type of skills and qualities that are required to work within professional football clubs community departments or national governing bodies, in areas of growth such as social inclusion, community coaching and football development. On this course, students learn about children and youth coaching, sports coaching, football development, social inclusion, sports management skills and the business relate
Jay Probert, Programme Lead for the Community Coaching Programme, said:
“This award is worthy recognition of the contribution all partners make to ensuring this course the success it is today. Towns and Cities across England and Wales are benefitting immensely from the 30,000+ hours that students are delivering within their local communities and in turn these students are enhancing their personal toolkit to make them highly employable. This award also recognises the innovative “flipped university” approach which we have developed over the past 5 years, allowing this course to be delivered through such an expansive network of partners, non of which would have been possible without the endorsement of the EFL Trust.”
Henry Seaton, EFL Trust Head of Education and Employability said:
“ It’s a well deserved accolade for USW and the staff in the Football Club Community Organisations that help first generation HE students start their careers in community coaching. The EFL Trust is proud to have supported the development of this unique and innovative programme.”
Advance HE came into being in March 2018, following the merger of the Equality Challenge Unit, the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Advance HE are focused on supporting the sectors desire to improve its own practice and create ‘safe places’ for the sector to address its challenges without the need for government intervention.’ USW and EFL Trust are delighted to have their work acknowledged in these, the inaugural Advance HE Awards
