Two English Premier League community coaches are conducting football clinics for over 100 coaches from Kenya and Uganda.
Jeremy Weeks, a former community coach for Fulham (left) and Festus Juma Onyango of the Society Empowerment Project in Nyanza during the Premier Skills programme at the Government School, Kabete, yesterday. PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO / STANDARD
The project is being led by head coach Jeremy Weeks, a former community coach at Fulham and Paralympics Football Competition Manager for the 2012 London Paralympics Games.
Weeks is supported by Adam Lea, an Education Manager at Portsmouth FC.
The Premier Skills initiative is run by the English Premier League and the British Council and a range of local partners at the Government School of Kenya in Lower Kabete, Nairobi.
The coaches undergo classroom learning and practical lessons where they are trained on the pitch.
The coaches have an opportunity to test their skills by replicating the course for a group of youth volunteers, apart from the grading certificates being awarded depending on their delivery skills.
The grassroots trainees from Kenya and Uganda receive expert training from qualified Premier Skill’s coaches, giving them the skills and support to develop their own community football projects across the region, as well as continue to build upon their own development as coaches.
Coach educator
Mohamed Mwajirani, a coach educator from Mombasa said:
“I am excited to have an opportunity to improve my Premier Skills training. I’m glad that after the training, I will be able to use my skills in the community’.
Umoinner FC coach Charles Okere said he learned vital coaching tips from the two-day event that is due to end today.
“Though I have started as a community coach, I am looking forward to upgrading this with mentorship and coach educator skills,” Okere said.
Brighter future
Premier Skills uses football to develop a brighter future for young people around the world, drawing upon the global appeal of the Premier League and its expertise in delivering community programmes in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network and track record of delivery.
Through Premier Skills, young people, often including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability and to raise their self-esteem.
Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “This phase of Premier Skills is an exciting and important one for the coach educators we have trained in Kenya and Uganda.
“It will prepare them to now pass on what they have learnt to others, as they go out and develop a new generation of football coaches across both countries,” said Scudamore in a press release.
Tony Reilly, the British Council Kenya Country Director said: “Premier Skills draws on the appeal of the Premier League and the unique power of sport to develop leadership skills among young people and to address community issues.
British Council is proud to be partnering the Premier League and our Kenyan partners in the implementation of this innovative programme in Kenya”.
By ERICK OCHIENG’, The Standard