Coach Education - 2021 Update
As part of our strategy to modernise our sport, Bowls Scotland have been working behind the scenes to continue to develop our coach education and volunteer development programme to ensure we have a quality workforce supporting our players and clubs across Scotland. Whilst COVID halted our progress in 2020, it also provided us with an opportunity to reflect and review our existing offerings and put in place a robust coach education and development plan for 2021 and beyond. An education and development calendar is currently in development and will be published in the coming months.
To help better understand our workforce needs, a people development survey was launched in November last year and we have made some key changes to the way we deliver coach education and development as a result of this feedback.
Digital Learning Platform
Working in partnership with sportscotland we will utilise an online learning platform that will allow Coaches & Volunteers to upskill, learn and develop from the comfort of their own home. This will allow us to make sure we have more coverage across Scotland, and we remove barriers to accessing all our Coach Education Opportunities.
This platform also allows us to create e-learning modules which can widen the knowledge and experience of even the most experienced coaches with online modules such as “Inclusive Bowls Coaching”, “Umpiring for Coaches” and many more.
This online platform will also allow coaches and volunteers to become better connected across Scotland via discussion forums aimed at sharing good practice, hints and tips, coaching sessions for example.
Design of Intro to Bowls Coaching Award (IBCA)
Previously, our entry level IBCA Course has been delivered over 6 hours. This has sometimes proven impractical for coaches and has led to some challenges when course organising.
After a successful pilot last February, and with the introduction of the digital learning platform, we will move to a blended learning approach with 2 hours of the course being delivered online, and 2 hours on the green at a local club. This will hopefully be easier to organise, more accessible for coaches to attend and in turn allow courses to be more flexible in terms of when they can be delivered, for example 1 evening mid-week instead of a full day at the weekends.
Coaching Tutor Recruitment
With more flexibility and more courses being delivered locally, this does mean we will need to increase out Tutor Workforce to cope with demand. We will be looking to recruit Local & National Coaching tutors in the coming weeks. Tutors will be responsible for delivering fun, progressive and positive Coach Education courses and workshops, as well as acting as Local and/or National Mentors for Coaches all over Scotland. We want to ensure that out with formalised education courses, our coaches are able to upskill and continue to learn and develop within their home club environment.
Tutor roles will be a mix of volunteer positions for local deliverers and competitive paid opportunities for our national tutors. We will put in place a robust recruitment process to ensure we have quality deliverers to join the already established group of excellent tutors.
More information will become available in the coming weeks.
For further information on any of the above, please contact our Coach and Volunteer Manager, Adam Martin via; adammartin@bowlsscotland.com or on 07591 825874.