iCoachKidsPlus - Digital Coach Education to Enhance Participation, Retention and Development in Youth Sport

Background Research shows that the vast majority of sport participants in the EU are children and young people (approx 80 million) under the supervision of close to 8 million coaches (North, 2009; Lara-Bercial et al., 2017). Importantly though, this sizeable coaching workforce is comprised mostly of volunteer coaches (70%). Only a few coaches are part-time paid (20%) and even fewer are full-time paid (5%) (North, 2009). In addition, it is also estimated that up to 50% of these coaches are unqualified. Objectives ICOACHKIDS+ aims to address the current lack of coach education resources to support coaches working with young people. The project used sound and evidence-based principles of adolescent participant development to achieve the following objectives:Enhance participation in sport and decrease dropout for children aged 12-18 (especially in girls)Maximise the health enhancing properties of sport participationTake full advantage of the potential of sport as tool for positive youth development Implementation With the above objectives in mind, the project has implemented the following outputs:IO1 – Enhancing Boys and Girls Sport Participation in the EU ReportIO2 – Guidelines for the Development of Effective Holistic Talent Development Environments in Sport for Boys and GirlsIO3 – Case Studies of Effective Holistic Development Environments in Sport for Boys and GirlsIO4 – iCoachKids+ Website and YouTube ChannelIO5 – Two Massive Open Online CoursesIO6 – Study Guides and Infographics Achievements iCoachKids+ has enhanced sport and physical activity for all young people across the Union through the creation of sustainable change and suitable provision for children and young people at a country or sport level. iCoachKids+ has done this through the development of research-based evidence and a set of comprehensive practical tools arising from the project outputs described above. These tools comprise research-based reports and recommendations and FREE e-learning courses for coaches.