The consultancy project, run by Sports and Retail within the school, brings in some high level industry partners to work with. In the past the sports students have worked with the RFU, Dorset County Football Association, Goodwood, and of course, RELAYS, as well as many others. Our projects are conducted by teams of Level H students across our four degree programmes with very positive feedback and results from all, a testament to all the hard work the students (and staff) put into these.
I recently made contact with one of the organisations that we worked with last year, The FA (Tesco Skills Programme), and got this response from them:
‘The FA Tesco Skills Programme is a revolutionary approach to youth coaching that has been providing high quality football skills courses for 5 to 11 year old boys and girls of all abilities since 2007. The programme is not just about learning basic football skills but also getting children involved in physical activity and leading healthier, happier lives. Since September 2009 the Dorset team have been supported by Year 4 Sport Development and Coaching Science [and Sport Psychology and Coaching Science] Students consultancy teams from Bournemouth University. These teams have collected and analysed video footage of skills sessions with players aged 5-11 years and offered their analysis on coaching methods, questioning and behaviour management, as well as attempting to identify any areas to improve upon based on relevant literature. Additionally a team has also created a DVD Resource for the team to use when working with other coaches. This partnership has been a huge success with Students from the University producing professional work and gaining valuable insight into youth coaching work. This partnership has been showcased nationally as best practice and other teams from across the country have begun to create links with their local Universities to develop similar projects.’
It is extremely encouraging to see that we are promoting new thinking within the FA and that the principles we have laid out with the consultancy projects, as a school, are being taken to other institutions around the country. Bournemouth University leading the way yet again!