Greater Brighton Metropolitan College (the MET) have announced a new BTEC Sports Level 1 Traineeship in Football Pilot launching in January 2019. The delivery partner for the football coaching and participation side will be local Falmer-based football club, Montpelier Villa FC.
The course is ideal for young people aged 19 + who want to train, play and learn about coaching football and it will be run over 12 weeks. The programme will include functional skills in maths, English and IT provided by the MET. Alongside the sports theory they will learn to gain their Sports Level 1 qualification, with the opportunity to learn, practice and earn a professional qualification in football coaching.
Amir Bahrami Director of Enterprise, said: “Traineeships are a really effective way to increase confidence and learn a new skill within a chosen sector. A traineeship in football is the perfect way to open the door into employment within sport or on to further education in the field. There are also many transferable skills that can be taken from this programme to support employment in other sectors – it really is a fantastic opportunity”
The football coaching and observation aspect of the project will be supplied during the 100 hours of work experience at the club by Kevin Green who is Lead Coach of Montpelier Villa’s 1st team and under 18s and Head of the club’s Player Development Centre. Kevin is also Head Coach for the University of Sussex’s 1st team. There will also be other elements as part of the training such as learning about marketing in football, how to run a local grassroots football club and coaching theory linking into the practical elements of the sessions the students will undertake with Kevin during the work experience.
Gary Pleece, the founder, president and youth chairman of Montpelier Villa FC said: “We’re delighted to be working with Amir and the MET on this pilot scheme. We are looking forward to working with these young people and providing them the space and time to better themselves and gain all the skills being involved in football can provide, such as communication, teamwork, confidence and the soft skills that will help them in their lives whatever they decide to do. We want to use the power of football to change people’s lives in our community.”
About Montpelier Villa FC
The club was formed in 1991 in the Brighton Hove & District League. After many successful seasons, the club won the Premier League title two years running before moving to the Mid Sussex Leagues, where the club expanded to the point where it now has 18 teams, across youth, men’s, women’s, and veterans. The 1st team and u18s are in the Southern Combination League (county leagues) and the club plays its football at the fantastic facilities at Falmer Sport Complex, University of Sussex where they have a developed a Player Development Centre, which is run by Kevin Green, professional football academy coach.
The club prides itself on developing people and players over results in a professional environment and they have also been involved in some innovative grass roots projects, including providing fee free football for homeless people as an extension of a project with Albion in the Community. The club wants to use the power of football to connect with the local community as well as helping to instigate change in people’s lives so they can become more socially and physically active.
About traineeships:
Traineeships are ways to become trained and qualified in a trade or particular type of job. They offer a nationally recognised qualification on completion of training. In this case there will be a BTEC Sports Level 1 as well as a Level 1 in Football Coaching. This programme will be aimed at students who are 19 years or over.
For more information, please contact:
GBMET on commercial@gbmet.ac.uk
Gary Pleece Montpelier Villa FC on gary@pleeceandco.com
