What is Premier Skills?

Premier Skills is an innovative international coaching development project run in partnership by the Premier League and the British Council.

It provides week-long courses to help young people to become multi-skilled community coaches.

This in turn enhances their football coaching skills, as well as developing their community leadership, and English language skills to improve employment and overall life chances.

Premier Skills has developed into the Premier League's flagship international development football project following a successful pilot phase in 2007 and 2008.

Working with national and local football and sporting authorities where it is present, Premier Skills was launched in Egypt back in February 2007 with projects in Cairo and Alexandria.

The initiative then moved onto India in 2008, running projects in Delhi and Kolkata, before being introduced in Uganda late in the year.

Following these successful pilot schemes, in October 2008 it was announced that Premier Skills was being expanded during 2009/10 to develop programmes in China, India, South-East Asia and ten countries in Africa.

The key aims of this expansion are to deliver:

1,000 community coaches, to be trained by summer 2010

100,000 young people benefiting from cascade activities

The involvement of Premier League Club community and Academy coaches.

The initiative takes Premier League expertise to countries around the world, organising week-long workshops that help to develop coaches at grassroots level as well as focusing on community sport development

In addition to Premier Skills football coaching and skills development sessions, the British Council delivers intensive English language courses.

This dedicated education resource website is a key component in participants being able to continue their language development after the week-long session has finished.

Source: PremierLeague.com