JOIN THE TEAM
If you would like to get involved in coaching for Onside you have a number of options
You can join our team here in the U.K. and work in either our London or Belfast projects. Built around your committments, once you complete your training you can come along every week or even just once a month.
We have opportunities for coaches to volunteer overseas in either India, Ghana or the Gambia. These can be short term or long term trips and you will be working with local community clubs.
Each year we organise playing tours where we take our junior teams overseas to play against local opposition. If you would like to be involved we are always looking for coaches to help us out.
STEP 1
Fill in an Application Form. This tells us a little bit about you, why you want to get involved and also lets us know if you already have any coaching experience.
STEP 2
We will contact you to have a chat about your application. If accepted into our programme we will enrol you on the F.A. Playmaker course (if you haven't already done it) and sort out your rota & kit.
STEP 3
Once we receive your DBS clearance we will partner you with an experienced coach and you will be ready to hit the pitch!
FOOTBALL COACHING
One of the main focuses of Onside Soccer has been to develop coaches both in the U.K. and also overseas. We believe that any sports organisation is only as good as it's coaches and we work hard to try to ensure that our coaching staff reach their full potential. To do this we have created tailored training programmes for each of the locations in which we work, combining formal F.I.F.A. recognised training courses and bespoke courses specific to the circumstances and needs of each location.
Our recruitment process ensures that only coaches who reach a certain standard can work at our projects. Although a knowledge and passion for football is important, the main characteristics we look for initially is that someone has a genuine interest in helping their local community, that they can see the potential of achieving this through football, that they are open and friendly and also that they can engage well with children and young people. Knowledge and experience can be gained over time but these 'soft skills' are much more difficult to develop.
COACH DEVELOPMENT
Once a coach has been brought on board we ensure that they go through our initial online training programme and that they also are offered the opportunity to gain qualifications through their local Football Association. This can be challenging in some locations where this resource is not readily available but we work with a number of Football Associations worldwide and even if a local training course is not available we ensure that online training with recognised qualifications are offered as an alternative. All new coaches are paired up with experienced coaches during training sessions until they reach an acceptable standard and are able to deliver training sessions as lead coach.
Training is an ongoing process and we encourage our coaches to participate in courses as much as possible. This is easier in some locations more so than others but we have developed our own in-house training programme, with our U.K. based Coach Educators visiting overseas projects to deliver week-long classroom and practical based training programmes. Coaches are assessed annually to ensure that they reach certain standards.
CHILD PROTECTION
The safety of children and young people is our number one priority and we take stringent measures to ensure that safeguards are in place to protect everyone at our projects. The countries in which we work all have different vetting processes and procedures but we ensure that national standards are met. In addition we also take up references, provide safeguarding training and our project policies ensure that no staff member is ever alone with a child at any time.
