Occupation summary
This occupation is found in the sport and physical activity sector in high-performance, community and school environments.
High Performance Sport Coaches: develop athletes and players in high-performance settings, including those on talent or development pathways, national or international programmes, professional or podium environments.
Community Sport Coaches: motivate and engage people of all ages and abilities in community sports and physical activity settings. Community sport includes local authority, charity and national governing body of sport community initiatives or clubs.
School Sport Coaches: collaborate with teachers to develop pupils’ mastery of psychomotor skills by applying a whole child approach in their coaching. They work in all categories of school and registered childcare environments.
The broad purpose of the Sport Coach occupation is to use extensive technical and tactical sports knowledge and skills to design and deliver coaching programmes that engage, motivate and evolve participants’ skills and performance.
Sport coaches aim to provide meaningful and high-quality learning, development and performance experiences. They support the achievement of medals in talent, national and international competition, enrich performance in local competitions, increase participation, raise educational standards, enhance wellbeing and drive social change. Sport coaches can influence national wellness to reduce burden on the National Health Service.
In their daily work, a sports coach interacts with and influences the coaching team including assistant coaches, coaches, managers, sponsors, boards and wider industry support networks. They do this through the design and delivery of their own coaching philosophy and professional practices in line with the organisational visions, strategies, policies and processes. They may also influence professional and governing bodies through their own practice. Sports Coaches measure the impact of their coaching strategies through analysis of participant, coach, coaching team and organisational perception and performance data. This is then benchmarked against local, national and international trends relevant to the environment in which they are coaching.
Stakeholders in this context include athletes, players, parents, peers, managers, sponsors, professional organisations, national governing bodies and performance support staff such as sport scientists, sports medics and performance analysts.
Key Information
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Course Level
Level 4
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Duration
The Apprenticeship will take18 months to complete.
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Awarding Body
Active Fusion
Core occupation duties
- Duty 1 Develop and update own coaching philosophy and strategies through professional practice, continuous development and self-review.
- Duty 2 Develop and implement evidence-based, progressive coaching systems that comply with all relevant and current legislation, statutory guidance, sector standards and codes.
- Duty 3 Use up-to-date knowledge of wider issues affecting the coaching environment to proactively influence best practice across the coaching team.
- Duty 4 Utilise and collaborate with industry-wide support networks and internal team members to ensure the most effective coaching services are delivered to participants.
- Duty 5 Use appropriate enquiry and profiling techniques to create a learning and development curriculum that considers participants’ unique needs, targets and/or goals, whilst building trust.
- Duty 6 Provide support to participants and the wider coaching team through progressive coaching programmes, at events or competitions.
- Duty 7 Promote holistic wellbeing within coaching practice to control/contain stressors experienced by participants in the coaching environment.
- Duty 8 Facilitate learning and skill acquisition of participants by creating positive coaching environments that apply learning theories, behaviour management techniques, technological advancements and wider support mechanisms.
- Duty 9 Measure the impact of coaching strategies on participants’ sustainable engagement and development and evaluate effectiveness of own performance on the wider coaching team, organisation and sport.
The EPA period should only start, and the EPA arranged once the employer is satisfied that the apprentice is deemed to be consistently working at or above the level set out in the occupational standard, all of the pre-requisite gateway requirements for EPA have been met and can be evidenced to an EPAO. For level 3 apprenticeships and above apprentices without English and Mathematics at level 2 must achieve level 2 prior to taking their EPA.
The EPA must be completed within an EPA period lasting typically 6 months, after the EPA gateway. The EPA consists of 3 discrete assessment methods. The individual assessment methods will have the following grades:
Assessment method 1: Work based project and presentation with questioning
- Fail
- Pass
Assessment method 2: Coaching Session Plan and Practical Observation with Questioning
- Fail
- Pass
Assessment method 3: Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio
- Fail
- Pass
- Distinction
Performance in the EPA will determine the overall apprenticeship standard grade of:
- Fail
- Pass
• Distinction
English and Maths – Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.
Successful completers will be able to move into leadership or management roles within the Sector which may be aligned to an Apprenticeship at higher level. This progression will involve leading teams of people; acting as a mentor for staff; or specialising with the delivery of sporting and physical activity programmes to certain populations or communities.
Financial Support
Depending on your situation, you may be able to access a range of financial support available.
Course Fees
UK
We do not currently have fee information available for this course. Please contact us for further information.
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Information for EU Students
From January 2021, how you apply for a course will change. For more information, read the UK Government's guide for the UK points-based immigration system for EU students (pdf).
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