Building on the success of the 2017-2020 Pathway, the FAI Coach Education & High Performance Departments visited several countries, elicited feedback from hundreds of coaches, and worked closely with UEFA to shape a new Pathway that would be more inclusive and beneficial to all coaches.

The unveiling of this Pathway follows on the back of a popular weekly Webinar seriesthat has so far engaged with over 350,000 people, a regular digital newsletter and unprecedented growth of the FAI Coach Education social media channels.

Now, with courses having resumed following the COVID-19 lockdown period, the new Pathway provides coaches - at all levels - a clear direction in how to reach the next level of their coaching careers.

2021-2025 Coach Education Pathway Key Points

• Implementation of the changes to the UEFA Coaching Convention, including a formal Coach Educator Qualification, Specialist licences at Elite Youth and Goalkeeping, and introduction of the UEFA C Licence
• An annual calendar of coaching conferences, including Football Fitness, Female Game, Goalkeeping, Pro Licence & Staff, National Coaching Conference and Futsal
• A Modular/CPD process brought in for Football Fitness and Performance Analysis, ensuring a competence level in each area prior to entering formal courses
• Introduction of the UEFA Grassroots Leaders Certificate as an Elite Coach qualification, which allows Grassroots coaches to obtain a UEFA qualification that will be cost relevant to the level they are working in
• New optional workshops, such as Jigsaw ‘One Good Coach’ which is a free online workshop and Referee Intro which will help coaches to better understand the rules of the game

FAI Head of Coach Education Niall O'Regan said: "Over the past 24 months we have been working hard on reviewing our 2017-2020 Coaching Pathway. It was great to see the previous Pathway evolve with multiple amendments. Now, we are using the 2021-2025 Pathway to build on that success.
 
"The 2021-2025 Pathway is focused on implementing the 2020 UEFA Coaching Convention over a three-year period, with age-specific courses in Elite Youth and Goalkeeping. There is also the introduction of the UEFA C Licence as the entry point within the Professional Pathway and a formal Coach Educator qualification.

"In addition to this, we are very excited about the changes to our CPD requirements from an hour to a credit system and a new online e-learning platform to come by year's end. So we are very much looking forward to shaping a brighter future for Coach Education."

FAI High Performance Director Ruud Dokter said: "After a lot of hard work, research and taking on-board feedback from coaches all around the country, I am delighted to see the 2021-2025 FAI Coach Education Pathway launched.

"For Irish football to continually move forward, we need to educate more coaches and improve their learning so that we can enable them to develop better players at all levels of the game. We have already seen some fantastic results in this area but there is a lot more to come and that is why this Coaching Pathway is essential.

"We must always aim to evolve, excel and inspire. This is the High Performance approach that we are working from in order to raise the standards in further developing Irish football and this Coaching Pathway very much reflects that.

"Congratulations to Niall O'Regan and his staff for rolling this out and I look forward to seeing coaches progress in their careers as they follow the Pathway