Para-Disability coach education and learning
Project: Enhancing Para-disability sport coaches' learning, mobility and employment with reference to Para-Disability European Sport Coaching Framework and Massive Open Online Course.
Tabo Huntley, LJMU Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching, has recently secured a £330,000 Erasmus+ funded project to design and implement a European Para Coaching Framework and design an online resource for coaches working or intending to work within a para coach setting. Importantly, this project continues to solidify LJMU’s relationship with the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) as a key partner.
Together with the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE), the project will run with four other European partners; Netherlands Sports Confederation, European Paralympic Committee, Institute of Sport, Poland, and Hungarian Paralympic Committee. The project will run for three years.
At the recent project kick off meeting (Monday 15 October), hosted by the ICCE in Leeds, Tabo (project director), Dr Amy Whitehead (assistant project director) and Dr Ladislav Petrovic (Project Manager -ICCE) met with partners to discuss the operational plan and agree roles and responsibilities over the 3 years of the project.
Tabo said: “In line with the recognised benefits of para sport, this project foregrounds the Para Coach work force and the important role played in helping to support the development of performers along the sporting pathway. It’s a great privilege to be able to lead this pioneering project with such highly respected partners and to also be able to bring this prestigious project to LJMU”
About the project
Against the backdrop of EU policy, the role of the coach, educational, training needs within Paralympic and Disability sport (para sport) is absent. This is despite the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (aligned to UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) recognition that over 80 million people within the EU have some form of disability restricting their access to sporting opportunities and calling EU countries to both 'promote and priorities' participation and access to mainstream sporting activities for persons with disabilities.
The Para-Disability Coach Education and Learning Project (PDCELP or ParaCoach Project) seeks to enhance sport coaches' learning, mobility and employment through the development of a Para-Disability European Sport Coaching Framework (PDESCF), Para-Disability Coaching Massive Open Online Course (PDCMOOC), Course Study Guides, Online Platform and associated research data and implementation and dissemination tools to act as recognised reference points across the European Union for the development of coach education programmes, practice and coaching systems.
PDCELP and PDCMOOC will also enhance national systems of vocational education and training in sport coaching by being referenced against the European Quality Assurance Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) and aligned with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The Framework will not only address the vocational education of sport coaches, but also those of coach developers (the trainers of coaches).
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