The Children Sport and Physical Activity Workforce in the UK Part 2 Report - Coach Learning and Development: The Training Needs and Preferred Learning Contexts of the Children’s Coaching Workforce

Executive Summary

This report contains the findings of the second part of ‘The Children Sport and Physical Activity Workforce in the UK’ study. This research has been commissioned by UK Coaching to inform the wider work of the Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC). The findings presented here are taken from a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted with 22 active coaches of children1, all of whom had been invited to participate after answering the quantitative survey which informed part 1 of the report. Of these 22 coaches, there are some key demographics to take into consideration:

• 14 men and 8 women took part in these interviews. This mirrors the wider coaching landscape whereby 62% of coaches are men.
• There is an even split between coaches working in grassroots and youth performance spaces (11 each). This is a different pattern to the youth coaching landscape, where 64% of coaches work in grassroots settings and 14.6% work in youth performance or youth representative. However, this is reflective of the purposive nature of the sample for this research.
• In terms of payment, 16 of the 22 coaches were completely voluntary (received no compensation or expenses). This is a slightly higher proportion than reported in the survey, where 47% of coaches were completely voluntary, 16% of coaches received compensation, 23% were part-time and 14% were full-time.

The coaches discussed a wide range of topics, including:

• The value of coaching
• The issues they encountered in their coaching roles
• Their training and development needs
• Their preferred learning contexts

The report is structured around these four key topic areas, before concluding with some actionable recommendations for the CCC.