10 steps to plan your sports qualification development
To enjoy a long career in the sports industry, achieving qualifications is inevitable.
You could be a coach, sporting director, medical practitioner or even a club CEO and find yourself in need of that next qualification to reach your full potential. So where do you start?
Whether you’re an aspiring or seasoned sports professional, strategic qualification planning is the key to unlocking new opportunities and staying ahead in the game, on and off the field.
My latest sports management guide outlines 10 steps for how to plan your sports qualification development.
Step 1: Clarify your credentials
Ensure you have completed a review of your credentials to date. Record details such as the awarding body, qualification title, dates and current validity status. This will ensure you clearly understand your current status and enable you to identify further opportunities.
Step 2: Map your aspirations
Map out where you want to go in the future. This could include educational aspirations for upcoming courses or lead you to identify particular roles and organisations you want to work in. A clear understanding of where you want to go will help you define and navigate the appropriate qualification pathways you’ll want to pursue.
Step 3: Source federative qualifications
National Sports Organisations require federative qualifications for many roles. For football coaches, these may include awards such as an A Licence or Pro Licence, which are now common role requirements and should form a key part of your qualification development strategy.
Many National Sports Organisations have significant formal and recognised qualifications available, such as below:
Step 4: Source academic qualifications
University qualifications or similar can be a prerequisite for many roles, particularly if you want to head overseas into college or university sports. There are increasing requirements in other areas of sports management that may prioritise academic training and qualifications over any other.
Step 5: Research Aspirational Personnel
There will be many practitioners who have tread a similar path to the one you wish to take. Identify key traits of those people, comparable experiences and qualifications that they have undertaken throughout their careers. With today’s digital accessibility, you may even be able to contact them directly!
Step 6: Research Role Requirements
Many coaching or sports management roles have minimum requirements for qualifications, both federative and/or academic. Identify roles similar to those you want and check if any common qualifications are often required or expected for your field of expertise.
Step 7: Periodise Educational Opportunites
Plan your educational experiences around any other commitments to ensure that you can meet the demands of the training while managing an appropriate workload. This should enhance your ability to comprehend and apply the learning materials in your environment.
A practical way to do this would be to get a yearly calendar, highlighting key events, and overlapping likely educational opportunities.
Step 8: Understand financial support available
Many organisations offer financial support to assist with Personal Development in the sports industry. These can be sought either as an individual or as part of an organisation that may be able to apply for funding on your behalf. Examples include Regional Sports Trusts or National Sports Organisations.
To search for available funds in New Zealand, check out the Sport New Zealand External Grants page here:
To search for available funds in Australia, check out the Australian Sports Commission / Australian Institute Of Sport Grants and Funding page here:
Step 9: Check Renewal or Licence Periods
Many qualifications, particularly federative licenses, now have active accreditation periods that are monitored by the awarding body. With any awards that have renewal periods, keep these current by completing the ongoing requirements within the set time periods, which can be verified by the awarding body.
Step 10: Regularly review, reflect and act
Reviewing and reflecting on your progress over time is widely accepted as common practice. Ensure that you act on any themes that stem from this analysis. This will help you to determine if your goals have been achieved or if you need to source assistance from elsewhere.
Want to see more of these posts? Check out my other articles on LinkedIn or on Medium using the links below. Thanks for reading!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenleedillon/
Related Articles:
