Communities

Premier Skills coaches come full circle in Malaysia

6 Feb 2014
premier-skills-malaysia-060214-group-shot

Kelvin Chee and Samuel Siew lead their first coaches coaching session in Kuala Lumpur

Coaches trained by the Premier Skills programme in Malaysia got their first opportunity to pass on their knowledge to a new generation of participants when they took the lead on the programme’s return to Kuala Lumpur.

Kelvin Chee and Samuel Siew took charge of an introductory three-day course for 19 participants from around the country who are beginning their journey to become Premier Skills coach educators themselves.

Chee and Siew, who qualified as coach educators last year, led the participants through practical sessions and workshops focusing on topics such as community coaching, project development and management skills. The course finished with the new participants organising a coaching clinic and tournament for 60 children aged 6-12 years-old.

"During the three days, I witnessed the excitement of the participants as they absorbed and applied what they had learnt," said Chee. "It was also encouraging to see the biggest female participation to date. In fact, at the end of the course, I was told that one of the female participants had gained confidence and overcame her fear of presenting in front of an audience."

premier-skills-malaysia-060214-participants-playing-2
60 children took part in a tournament at the Premier Skills session

Premier Skills, the Premier League's flagship international good causes project, was launched in 2007 and is delivered in partnership with the British Council. It now operates in 22 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas and creates training opportunities for grassroots coaches and referees.

The expertise of Premier League coaches is utilised to train grassroots coaches so that they, in turn, have the possibility of running coaching courses of their own, passing on their knowledge to others in their local community. The programme is split into three phases, where participants progress from trainees to being able to train up new coaches themselves.

Premier Skills has made a significant impact as over the last seven years, 2,300 coaches and referees have benefitted from the programme who in turn have reached more than 500,000 young people.

In Malaysia, over 130 community coaches and referees since 2009 have benefited from the expert training of professionals from the Premier League clubs and the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd.

"As we move towards sustaining the legacy of Premier Skills in Malaysia, our Coach educators have shown that they are building on the excellent work already done in Malaysia by delivering high quality training and cascading their knowledge to new coaches," said Shamala Ernest, British Council Malaysia Programmes Manager.

Both Chee and Siew will continue their Premier Skills involvement in March when they join other Level 1 coaches in helping up-skill Premier Skills Level 2 coaches from Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea.

Latest Videos

More Videos