Scottish Borders Council (SBC) has launched a new Coaching Scholarship Scheme to encourage sports coaches to develop their careers within the Scottish Borders by offering them financial support and guidance.
The scheme gives new or current coaches, who live in the region, the opportunity to apply for financial support to complete coaching courses in return for their coaching commitment and support for local events and clubs in the Borders.
The scheme replaces the former financial support available from the four Local Sports Councils but will still be funded by them, alongside SportBorders - the local support system for coaches, leaders and volunteers.
There are four levels of support available - workshop, bronze, silver and gold. These provide coaches at different levels the chance to progress through the coaching pathways.
The bronze, silver and gold awards require coaches to be committed to coaching within the Borders for a minimum of one year and attend two Coach Development Workshops such as First Aid or Safeguarding and Protecting Children. The silver award requires coaches to log 40 hours of coaching/mentoring in a log book while the gold award requires 50 hours. Both silver and gold awards require coaches to attend a mentoring training course which will enable them to support less experienced coaches on the Scholarship scheme and at their club; as well as support local sporting events such as Scottish Borders Coaching Conference, Holiday Programme, Borders Sports Academy and help other clubs with less experienced coaches.
The workshop level is open to those coaches who want to attend various Coach Development Workshops and/or Coaching Conferences to improve their coaching knowledge.
Grants of up to £500 are available depending on the level of award applied for and quality of application provided. The applications will be processed by SportBorders and all decisions will be made at their discretion.
More information on the scheme and application forms are available from www.sportborders.org.uk or from Andy Lawrie andy.lawrie@scotborders.gov.uk tel 07899726967.