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Football coaches develop the skills and motivation of football players and teams.
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; flexibly
In this role you could:
You may need to wear a uniform.
You could work in the community, at a school, at a college, at a university or at a sports arena.
Your working environment may be outdoors in all weathers, physically demanding and you'll travel often.
You can get into this job through:
You could study for a foundation degree or a degree in subjects like:
There are also undergraduate and postgraduate courses that combine football coaching with subjects like:
It may help you to also complete an online introductory course offered by the Football Association (FA) like:BT Playmaker; Introduction to Coaching Football
You'll usually need:
You could do a college course, which will help you to get started. Relevant subjects include:
You'll need to check if your course includes the FA Coaching Awards, or if you need to take these separately.
You could do a sport community activator coach intermediate apprenticeship or a sports coach higher apprenticeship.
These typically take 18 months to complete as a mix of workplace learning and study.
You'll usually need:
You could start as a volunteer at your local amateur football club.
This will help to build up your experience and could lead into training for professional coaching qualifications.
You can do coaching qualifications offered by The Football Association.
Qualifications start at introductory level and go all the way up to the Level 5 UEFA Pro Licence for the professional game.
Contact your local County Football Association to get more details about courses.
You'll need to:
You'll need some footballing ability so that you can demonstrate skills and techniques when coaching. Getting experience of working with players from a variety of backgrounds and abilities is also useful.
Salaries for coaches in English professional football are much higher than those working in education, the community and for smaller football clubs.
You can find out more about a career in coaching through The Football Association and UK Coaching.
As a community coach, with further training, you could move into sports development or youth work. As a coach with a professional team, you could move to a bigger or higher profile club.
You could also move into a specialist area like sports psychology or goalkeeping coaching.
The FA Licensed Coaches' Club offers continuing training and progression for coaches.
You can find out more about a career in coaching through The Football Association and UK Coaching.