The final phase of the Premier Skills Coach Educator programme began on March 8 and will run for five days at the Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai. The event will see a total of 40 coaches from around Mumbai taking part. This is the Premier Skills’ sixth course in partnership with the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) in the past three years.

The earlier iterations of the programme gave participants a comprehensive overview of how to be a community coach and how to run their own community development programmes. The final phase is aimed towards helping them make that transition from coach to a coach educator and be part of the Premier Skills programme moving forward.

Over the last three years, the programme has conducted over 40 community coaching courses for new grassroots coaches. It is a sustainable and exciting initiative with the potential of having a big impact on coaches across the country.

The ongoing event will also feature a football festival on Thursday with 100 kids from various NGOs in Mumbai, including Slum Soccer and the Oscar Foundation, taking part. The coaches will be given the opportunity to impart the knowledge they gain through the course during the festival. On Friday, the participants will receive their course completion certificates which will allow them to move on to being coach educators and shape future Indian coaches.

The Premier Skills programme in India has seen an excellent response over the past three years with representatives from all 10 Hero ISL clubs attending the programme. This final phase also gives the Premier League the opportunity to assess the impact that the programme has had on Indian football so far.