This document provides an overview of the University of South Wales' approach to embedding employability within their sports coaching curriculum through a case study. Key aspects of their approach include: - Integrating work-based learning opportunities and qualifications throughout all three years of degree programs in football and rugby coaching. This includes placements, modules, and obtaining coaching licenses. - Curriculum design with progressive development of skills from preparation to application to critical reflection across the three years. - Strong partnerships with organizations to provide students placement and employment opportunities. - Support for students including mentors, employers forums, and an employability coordinator to help coordinate work-based learning. - Assessment of employability skills through reflective logs,

1. Embedding employability within the curriculum – USW Case
Study
Rob Griffiths
Paul Rainer
Jon Evans

2. Critical Success Factors
Policy
Driven
Academic
Staff
Assessm
ent
Employabil
ity
Coordinat
or
Innovative
Partnerships
Mentori
ng
Support

3. Curriculum Design
Year 1
• PREPARATION
• Ensuring appropriate knowledge base
• Develop relevant skills (leadership, communication, organisation)
• Application within peer group environment
• Introduction to key initiatives/programmes e.g Street Games
Year 2
• APPLICATION
• Undertake community placement
• Opportunity to join Active Valleys
• Expectation that student acquires a significant number of vocational awards
Year 3
• CRITICAL REFLECTION
• Extended piece of critical writing
• 140 hour community placement – leading on projects
• Development of critical reflection, analysis and discussion techniques

4. Year 2 modules
Sport Placement Module
• 40 hours of ‘delivery’ in a community
sport setting
• Options include: Primary school extra-
curricular delivery; competition
organisation; and StreetGames
community sport delivery
• Working with key partners – Sport RCT,
Sport Caerphilly, StreetGames & Merthyr
Sports Development
• Rugby & Football degree programmes
focus on sport specific community
placements

5. Year 3 modules
Applied Professional Project (40c)
• Option for students on all sport degree
programmes
• Taken instead of a dissertation
• Students undertake a placement for a day a
week over a period of at least 20 weeks with an
employer
• Students are required to write a report based on
a project that they deliver during their
placement
• Ideal for those students wanting to gain
significant industry experience

6. Year 3 modules
Work-Based Learning (20c)
• Option for students wishing to do a dissertation
• Provides an opportunity to undertake work-based learning
alongside a research project for their dissertation
• Students undertake a placement for a day a week over a
period of at least 20 weeks with an employer (140 hours)
• Students are required to write 2 reflective essays or their
experiences whilst on their placement

7. Academic Staff
1. Previous industry
experience
2. Strong engagement with
industry
3. Research interests within
student employability
4. Employability acknowledged
within workload

8. Student Support
• Designated industry mentors
and academic supervisors
• WBL Handbook
• Employers handbook
• Employers forum
• Timetabled sessions
• E-portfolio
• Sports Jobs & Careers

9. WBL Coordinator & Lecturer
• To co-ordinate and manage the work placement opportunities with National Governing
Bodies, Local authorities, professional organisations and schools
• To deliver workshops/tutorials to students in aspects of professional development in
the workplace
• To develop and maintain a working relationship with external agencies and to assist and
support students work placements in the area of sports coaching and performance.
• To provide mentorship to students that are on placements
• To contribute to the delivery of sports coaching modules as necessary.
• To perform administration and assessment associated with student placements.
• To provide regular reports and assessments in relation to the coaching ability of
students whilst on placement
• To co-ordinate and manage collaborative work based learning forums.

10. Assessment
Reflecti
ve Logs Managem
ent
Reports
Blogs / e-
portfolio
Mentor
feedback
Practica
l
Delivery
Use of
Video &
Audio
Poster / Oral
Presentation
s
Design
of
Resourc
es
10

11. Innovative Practice
• USW Sport Student Enterprise – ‘Active Valleys’
• Run by sports students from years 1, 2 and 3
• Currently have a
number of contracts
with local authorities
to deliver sport to the
community
• Gain experience of
running a ‘business’
in sport

12. Employability Conference
• Employers advertise their job roles and placements to prospective students
• Students apply for and are selected for particular roles by the employers (via
application form/CV and interview)
• Each year, sports students attend an Employability
Conference
• Provides valuable interview and
industry experience in a supportive
and purposeful environment
• Allows for important networking in
the sports sector

13. Partnerships
Post Organisation
Football Development Officer Welsh Football Trust
Junior Sports Assistant RCT
WRU Enterprise Academy WRU
5x60 assistants RCT and Caerphilly
Competition Assistant Cricket Wales
Sport Policy Unit Welsh Government
Hockey Development Officer Hockey Wales
Assistant Instructors RCT Outdoor Activity Centre
Rowing Participation Officer Welsh Rowing
Leisure Project Officers Halo Leisure

14. © University of South Wales
The modern day Coach is Unprepared
Recent critical writing on coach development and coach education
programs suggests that existing approaches are unable to provide the
professional development required for coaches working in often
increasingly complex, dynamic and demanding environments
(Cushion, 2007).

15. © University of South Wales
Mechanical
Compliance
Typically NGB Coach Education has
portrayed coaching as a ‘knowable
sequence’ (Usher, 1998) and coaches as
‘merely technicians involved in the
transfer of knowledge’ (MacDonald and
Tinning, 1995) where theory has been
delivered separate to practice.

16. © University of South Wales
It has been recognised that if we are
to develop imaginative, dynamic and
thought provoking coaches we must
widen the search beyond the “usual
suspects” of content knowledge that
has traditionally informed the coach
education process (Cushion, 2003).
21st Century
Coach

17. A different type of Pedagogy
• Active participation
• Self-determined action
• Collaborative experiences
• Edge of chaos expectations
• Open environment
• Situated/authentic experiences
• Formative feedback
• Reflective Evaluation
• Scaffold experiences
• Connected experiences
• Passive participation
• Received action
• Individualised experiences
• Stable expectations
• Closed environment
• De-contextualised experiences
• Summative feedback
• Superficial Evaluation
• Fragmented experiences
• Compartmentalised experiences
• Complex Pedagogy • Behaviourist Pedagogy

18. © University of South Wales
Courses we Developed
• Foundation Degree Football Coaching & Performance
• BSc Football Coaching & Performance
• Foundation Degree Rugby Coaching & Performance
• BSc Rugby Coaching & Performance

19. © University of South Wales
Responsive to Key
Stakeholders
Skills Active (2006) – ‘the combination of
Level 2 NGB Coach education and a
relevant degree would be extremely
beneficial for sport employment’
HE must therefore in collaboration with
stakeholders provide opportunities for
students to experience the complexities
of coaching

20. Awareness of Deployment

21. © University of South Wales
Curriculum Design
The need to move away from a
content / instructional based
curriculum to a progressive
curriculum that is focused on a
student centred approach.

22. © University of South Wales
FD Football/Rugby Coaching & Development
BSc Rugby Coaching & Performance
Year One Year Two Year Three
Academic and Professional Skills Research Methods
Dissertation
or
Applied Project
(Double Modules)
Football/Rugby coaching young children
(Double module)
Football/Rugby Coaching: Adolescent performers
(Double Module)
Expert Performance & Psychological Factors
Strength and Conditioning principles and applications Performance Analysis Strength & Conditioning
Developing Athlete BSc Pathway: Analysis in Rugby/Football Coaching & Performance
BSc Pathway: Developing Expertise in Motor Behaviour Contemporary Issues in Sports Coaching
Introduction to Coaching Science Monitoring
Testing & Evaluation
FD Pathway: FD Pathway:
Developing Sport Sport Employability Placement
(Double Module)

23. © University of South Wales
WRU UKCC Level 1 and FAW
Level 2 (UEFA C) licence
40 hours placement
WRU UKCC Level 2 award
FAW Level 3 award (UEFA B)
licence
140 hour placement
FAW Level 3 award
140 hour placement
Year 1
Academic Research & Professional ,The Developing Athlete, Strength &
Conditioning Principles and Applications, Football/Rugby Coaching
Young Children(40c), Developing Sport.
Introduction to Coaching Science
Year 2
Performance Analysis, Research Methods, Football/Rugby
Coaching Adolescent Performers (40c), Sport Placement
(Rugby/Football)(40c), Monitoring Fitness Testing, Sport
Psychology & Skill Acquisition
Year 3
Dissertation/Applied Professional Project, Contemporary Issues in
Sport, Strength & Conditioning, Advanced Sport Psychology & Skill
Acquisition, Analysis in Rugby/Football, Work Based Learning, Athlete
Career Transitions.
FD/BSc Rugby/Football Coaching WBL integrated throughout

24. © University of South Wales
Year 1 FAW/UEFA C licence (72 hrs)
Year 2/3 FAW/UEFA B Youth Licence (144
hrs)
Year 1 WRU Coaching Children Level 1 (7-
13 yrs of age) (72 hrs)
Year 2 WRU UKCC Level 2 Coaching award.
Integration of Coach Education

25. © University of South Wales
Key Points in the design of WBL
• Curriculum Design
– Integration of WBL throughout
• Follow QAA guidelines and Code of
Practice for WBL and FD
– Assessment
– Engagement with employers
• Quality assurance of WBL
– Students are ‘fit for purpose’
• Mentor support
• A range of well designed WBL
opportunities
• Community of Coaching Practice
• Mutual Obligation and Shared
Responsibility

26. © University of South Wales
A Community of
Learning Practice
Jones et al., (2004) suggested that
inherent in experiential learning is
the process of learning how to
coach through socialisation within a
subculture, where coaches through
interaction with other coaches are
able to develop a set of coaching
values of “how things should be
done” (Lyle, 1999).

27. © University of South Wales
Learning through Real-world Experience
This new innovative approach to coach education would
suggest the experiential learning opportunities offered
through this approach are not as Jones and Wallace (2005)
suggest “removed from reality”, but provide coaches the
opportunity to facilitate the integration of new knowledge into
coaching practice (Nelson & Cushion, 2006). The course
echoes the views of Cushion et al., (2003) of the need to
situate the trainees’ learning in the practical experience of
coaching in an appropriate supportive context, through work
based learning in a variety of contexts.

28. © University of South Wales
Active Endorsement Higher Education
Endorsement Scheme - Sports Coach Education
• Aims of the scheme
• To enable prospective students to make more informed decisions when
choosing their courses of study.
• To help Universities ensure their courses of study have currency and
relevance to industry.
• To produce educated and employable graduates in the sector.
• To help define and promote the concept of ‘graduateness’ in the sector.

29. Abrahams. A., & Collins, D. (1998). Examining and Extending research in coach development, Quest, 50: 59-79.
Cushion, C. Armour, K.M. & R.L.Jones.(2003). Coach Education and continuing professional development: Experience and learning to
coach, Quest, 5:215-230.
Jones, R.L. & M. Wallace. (2005). Another bad day at the training ground: Coping with ambiguity in the coaching context, Sport
Education & Society, 10, 119-134.
Nelson, L. & C. Cushion. (2006). Reflection in Coach Education: The case of the national governing body of coaching certificate. The
Sport Psychologist, 20: 174-183.
Reid, A. and Petocz, P. (2003). The Professional entity: rebuilding the relationship between students’ conceptions of learning and the
future profession. Paper presented at the 11th Improving Student Learning Symposium, Hinckley, Leicestershire, 1-3rd September,
2003
Sports Coach UK. (2008). The UK Coaching Framework.
Usher, R. (1998) The story of the self: Education, experience and autobiography, in: M. Erben (Ed.) Biography and Education: A reader
(London, Falmer Press).
© University of South Wales
References

30. © University of South Wales
COACH DEVELOPMENT
USW COACH PATHWAY
SUPPORT PROGRAMME

31. © University of South Wales
Jon Evans - WRU Coach Development Officer
Mentor support and Supporting Lecturer
My Role

32. © University of South Wales
1st Years complete the UKCC Coaching Rugby Union Children’s Level 1.
Modules
• What is coaching
• Planning and Organisation
• Communication Skills
• Games for Understanding
• Core Values
• The TAG Game
• An introduction to contact
They also complete a four week coaching placement at a local Primary Schools.
Qualifications

33. © University of South Wales
2nd Years Complete the UKCC Coaching Rugby Union Level 2.
Modules
• Effective Coaching
• Coaching Styles
• Skill Acquisition
• Developmental Coaching
• Powering the 8 man scrum
• Continuity in contact
• Backline options
Students also receive additional topics such as 7’s, Touch rugby and Strength and Conditioning to
enhance their coaching knowledge.
Qualifications

34. © University of South Wales
Challenges
Student.
From a review of the
course they said:
• Peer Assessments
• Even more
qualifications
eg 7’s, Refereeing
• Experience
WRU.
Issues I have faced
• Attendance
• Most qualified class
but how many are
actually coaching
• Placement
opportunities

35. © University of South Wales
Experience
Delivery of WRU programmes:
Little stars
Under 14 Talent Identification
Secondary Schools
Primary Schools
Dewar Shield
Street Stars
Atomic Touch
Touch
Refereeing

36. © University of South Wales
Case Study
Joe Davies – WRU Player Development Officer
for Cardiff
Former Student of USW
Role
Facilitates delivery of rugby programmes in 24
Secondary Schools.
Delivers Talent Identification Skills Hubs for the Cardiff area
Key stake holder in the Cardiff Schools Dewar
Shield Under 15’s Team

37. © University of South Wales
Thanks for listening
Any questions