England Football Learning has announced two new university partnerships in their quest for promoting women’s sport.

England Football Learning has announced new University Partnerships in their quest for promoting women’s sport.

The partnership continues the English FA’s commitment to women’s football and develops coaches within the women’s game.

England Football Learning is now offering High-Performance Football Centres in order to offer support for women’s and girls’ football coaches at specialists with newly partnered University of Essex and Birmingham City.

Abbie Sadler, FA Women’s Pathway Coach Developer Lead, expressed her excitement:

“It’s brilliant to add two new partners to our Women’s High Performance Football Centres offering at universities. The opportunities the programme creates will be invaluable to coaches and the wider workforce wanting to take their next steps in women’s football.

We are also thrilled to have also extended our partnership with all the universities we work with for another two years and cannot wait to continue the great work in the women’s and girls’ games.

With 10 centres across the country, there’s real depth and breadth to the programme and opportunities for coaches nationwide.”

This takes their partners to 10 universities across the country, a fantastic growth especially off the back of recent success.

What is a Performance Centre?

The Women’s High Performance Football Centres (WHPFC) are designed to provide a dual hub for both the community and education. These hubs help recruit, develop and distribute coaches and a wider workforce to steer and encourage player progress within the women’s and girls game.

Where are the current centres?

The following university institutions are currently partnered with England Football Learning:

  1. Northumbria University
  2. Manchester Metropolitan University
  3. Nottingham Trent University & University of Nottingham
  4. Sheffield Hallam University
  5. University of Gloucestershire
  6. Plymouth Marjon University
  7. St Mary’s University
  8. University of Chichester
  9. University of Essex *
  10. Birmingham City University *

* New Partners

Each of the existing partners recently renewed their partnership to continue operating Women’s High Performance Football Centres until July 2024.

This is a huge step forward in England Football Learning’s mission to provide women’s football with coaches and other staff at every level in the UK.

What are the benefits of the performance centres?

Centres like these have a multitude of benefits for both the players they’re aimed at and also to the students. Here are just a few:

  • WHPFC’s will supply a link with the ‘Player Pathway’ programme which is there to aid talented players who receive benefits from coaching, sports science, sports medicine, and scholarship opportunities in both academic and community environments.
  • In these areas, clubs from across the football pyramid and women’s football academies will benefit from the partnership by the recruitment of coaches, and the wider workforce, with the Universities providing a wide range of student placements from strength and conditioning, sports therapy, performance analysis, marketing, media, and business management.
  • For students, this provides a unique opportunity to be a part of this initiative and gain valuable experience, especially if they are interested in sports coaching, science, and medicine.

You can learn more about Football at the UK university level via the link below.

U.K. University Football

Football

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