West Riding FA are running an FA Level 3 (UEFA B) Qualification in conjunction with the Evo Stik League

We have 18 coaches from the Evo-Stik League who each received a bursary from the league, plus 6 coaches who had applied to West Riding’s grassroots course but were working at a similar level of the game on the course.

The Evo-Stik League expressed an interest to raise the standard of coaching across their member clubs during their annual league development plan consultation with the County FA.

Following an audit of qualifications held by coaches in the league, it was determined there was a real appetite for coaches to access the UEFA B Course.

The league has previously offered bursaries for coaches to find and attend courses but they receive frequent feedback that the courses often clash with their club commitments.

As a potential solution, we explored the possibility of running a bespoke course for the league and for coaches to utilise the bursary offered by the league.

The course is mainly aimed at coaches working in the 11v11 game.

Throughout the course, which is divided into 4 blocks, our aim is to support coaches to deepen their understanding of the game and apply key technical and tactical detail in their own context.

Steve Dorey, Senior Football Development Officer at West Riding FA, said “So far the course has completely exceeded my expectations. The level of discussion with the coaches is excellent as they clearly have a lot of knowledge and experience so it’s been great to see everybody interacting, sharing ideas and being really honest about what they’re doing at their clubs.

As part of the course, the tutors visit each learner a minimum of 3 times to support their development and this has also been a really rewarding experience as the feedback we’ve had so far is that the course is really benefitting the work they’re doing.

For the County FA, it’s a real privilege to be able to support the league with this initiative and hopefully this will be the first of many courses of this nature in the future.”