(February 7, 2018) This weekend, 50 coach developers will meet in Red Deer to take part in a Learning Facilitator course – a training opportunity focused on effective facilitation skills and strategies used in an adult education context.

“To create an enjoyable and effective learning environment for players, we need to develop competent coaches,” explained Jim Loughlin, Alberta Soccer Director of Coach Education and Player Development. “A key component of developing competent coaches are the coach developers. Effective coach developers facilitate coach learning through a sound understanding of adult education – they are the coaches of the coach. We are excited to work with 50 coach developers this weekend on effective approaches to briefing and debriefing, providing feedback, group dynamics, structuring learning activities and facilitating learning.”

Of the course’s 50 participants, nine are members of the Coach Developer Initiative. This is one of two projects which are part of the Alberta Women in Sport Leadership program, a 2.5-year initiative being offered by the Coaching Association of Canada and Alberta Sport Connection and is part of a larger project funded by the Status of Women Ministry. These women will be joined by their program mentors, Liz Jepsen (trained coach Developer and Head Coach of Pandas Soccer) and Jacquie Hertlein (Executive Director of CWSA, Alberta Soccer Technical Committee Member and SAIT Women’s Team Assistant Coach).

For everyone in attendance, the weekend’s focus will be on reinforcing the role played by coach developers within coach education. Experienced learning facilitators will serve as effective facilitation strategists that devise best practices to manage the challenges realized by learning facilitators during a live FUNdamentals Workshop. By the end of the weekend, new and experienced coach developers will better understand how to create positive and safe learning environments for coaches. Moreover, all of them will have taken steps forward along the NCCP Pathway for Coach Developers through the completion of Content-Specific and/or Core Training for Learning Facilitators.

For more information on the Women in Sport Leadership – Coach Developer Initiative, click here