Reds in the Community are excited to announce that 26 of our education students will be going on a unique two-week coaching experience in Malta next year!

In February, the selected students will have the life-changing opportunity to coach children of different ages in an international setting without spending a penny of their own money.

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is funded by the Erasmus programme, which covers the cost of flights, accommodation, food & drinks and spending money for the duration of the coaching experience.

Throughout the week, the students will deliver sessions to Primary School children and the junior teams at Luxol Football Club, who ply their trade in the Maltese Premier League.

During free time and at weekends, the learners will also be able to play competitive sporting fixtures and enjoy cultural experiences such as visiting Malta’s stunning capital city of Valletta.

Education Officer Mark Crossfield gave an insight into how valuable the experience will be for the students.

He said: “It’s the first time that Reds in the Community are going on an international trip. They’re going to get some really valuable life experience. It’s completely different to what they will have experienced doing school sport here in the UK. We’ll be around different Primary Schools in the morning session, delivering fun sessions and developing some fundamental skills for children as young as three up to 11 years old. There’s also a great football complex there at Luxol Football Club – the students will have the opportunity to actually coach some of the junior teams.

“It might be the first time that they’ve left this country. There’s going to be a lot of independence. They’re going to have to be disciplined, work together as a team and ultimately have some fun, developing key skills that they’ll hopefully be able to take on in the future careers that they want to progress into.”

The 26 students have been selected after a process which has included a written application, an interview and a coaching session with pupils from Meadstead Primary Academy.

Mark has been left with immense pride by the quality of the students’ work throughout the application process.

“I’m massively impressed,” he added. “We’ve had 100 students this year. All students were eligible to apply for this trip. The standard of the written applications was fantastic. We narrowed it down to 30 students to do a coaching session with Meadstead Primary. Our students delivered a coaching session for an hour which went incredibly well. I was incredibly proud of the standard of what the students produced. It was really difficult to narrow it down to the 26 but we used a fair scoring system all the way through the application process.”

The Malta coaching experience is one of two international trips for students in Reds in the Community’s education setup, with the Shadow Scholarship going on a Barcelona Tour in April.

If having the opportunity to gain priceless experiences like this whilst studying sounds attractive, you can apply to study at Oakwell by clicking HERE.

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