What Happens on a Coach Core Apprenticeship

Becoming a Coach Core apprentice is a chance to simultaneously earn money from working a real job, whilst also getting education that will result in an industry-recognised qualification.

You will be employed and paid for a minimum of 30 hours per week, and that will include your ‘education day’ – a day spent with your Learning Coach and other Coach Core apprentices working towards your qualification.

You will work alongside experienced members of staff at your employer, and will be coaching, as an assistant coach to start, and, if appropriate, as a lead coach towards the end.

What You’ll Do

Depending on your employer you might be working with: children’s sports clubs, school groups, inactive teens, senior citizens or those with special educational needs.

A typical week might look something like this (but it does vary significantly from employer to employer):

Your role will involve:

• Helping to inspire your community to develop and lead a healthy, active lifestyle
• Shadowing experienced coaches and supporting existing sessions and activities
• Assisting with the planning and delivery of sessions, taking the lead with small groups as directed
• Assisting with the reporting of participant progress and development
• Supporting the wider activities of your employer, which may include administration tasks, social media, marketing and events
• Sharing knowledge and ideas with other Coach Core apprentices, to help improve coaching delivery.

Timeline

The apprenticeship will last 15 to 18 months and will finish with an assessment that covers a presentation, panel interview and an assessed coaching session

Timeline:

• make application
  • Applications are made through the training provider (more on them later)
• interview
  • Applicants who make it through the initial screening will be invited to an informal interview with potential employers
• get offer from employer
  • Applicants may get an offer from one, or more, employers. If they choose to take one of those offers then a formal contract is signed
• start with employer
  • The applicant is now an apprentice! They start working for their employer and begin their education with the rest of the group
• End Point Assessment
  • When the apprentice is ready (but no sooner than month 12), they will go through the End Point Assessment, which they will need to pass to gain their qualification
• finish with employer
  • The apprentice comes to the end of their contract
• exit routes
  • The apprentice is supported to find their next steps, either into employment or further education

Education

A key part of being an apprentice is the formal education side. This is delivered by a training provider – a separate company from Coach Core or your employer. The training provider employs a Learning Coach who will take you and the other Coach Core apprentices on the programme through the education requirements. This will take place on the same day each week, and is normally broken down as a morning of theory work and an afternoon of practical work. You will be paid for this day. You Learning Coach will be an important mentor for you, and as well as delivering the education days they will also visit you at work to monitor your progress and what your employer has you doing.

Over the course of the apprenticeship you will gain:

• An Apprenticeship Qualification
  Either a Community Activator Coach (Level 2) or a Community Sport & Health Officer (Level 3). These have been specifically designed for organisations that coach sport or lead physical activity sessions in the community and it means you will have a flexible set of skills that allow you to progress down many different career paths. You will gain experience working with a range of different communities and people and will be able to plan and deliver engaging sessions centred around the participants. You can read more about the Community Activator Coach standard and the Community Sport & Health Officer standard.
• Other Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
  Through our national partners and supporters we are able to offer other training and development opportunities, such as training sessions with NBA coaches, employment skills workshops and more. The availability and range of activities change from year to year.

Employer

You will spend 80% of your time on your apprenticeship working for your employer.

Every employer is carefully checked by Coach Core to ensure they are the right fit for our programme. As a charity we work specifically in areas of challenge and encourage applications from apprentices who may need a significant amount of support. All our employers are on board with this and excited to provide opportunity to those who need it most. Coach Core fundraises to provide the employers with a grant towards the costs of the apprenticeship.

You may work with a wide range of staff within your employer organisation, but you will always be assigned a specific person as your mentor.

Coach Core work with a wide range of employers, including professional sports club foundations (such as Fulham Football Club), youth clubs, charities, leisure providers, councils, local authorities and more.

Other Organisations You Will Come Into Contact With

• Coach Core
  You will likely meet some Coach Core staff through your recruitment process and we visit each site throughout the year. In particular we’ll have an Employment Coach in your region who you can talk to about any aspect of the apprenticeship and beyond. We’re very friendly and we love hearing what you’re up to!
• Other employers and connected partners
  Because Coach Core works by building a local network of apprentice-employers and other organisations you may get the opportunity to work with other companies than your employer. This might be running coaching sessions with a different type of group than usual or helping out on a big event.

Requirements

You must be enthusiastic about wanting to work within the sport and physical activity sector and be committed to inspiring others to be more physically active. No prior coaching experience is required, but a willingness to learn, develop and challenge yourself is essential. Our other requirements are that you must be:

• aged 16-24 when applying
• available for full-time employment, 30 hours a week for 15-18 months
• able to provide a reference. This can be an individual from your school, college, place of work or sports club

What Happens Once the Apprenticeship Finishes

Once you have finished your apprenticeship there are a number of different possible positive routes you can take. Coach Core and our partners will be here to support you through them if needed. Some of the options include:

• Your employer offering you a new contract
  If you impress your employer during your apprenticeship, and they have space on their work-force they may offer you a job once you finish.
• Finding other work
  With your apprenticeship qualification, other training, over a year’s work experience and a reference from your employer you will be in a good position to find other work.
• Education or training
  Your apprenticeship comes with credits that will help you enter further education or training. This might be going on to a higher level apprenticeship, college or university