Opportunities for female coaches with new UEFA courses
Republic of Ireland WNT players Saoirse Noonan, Jamie Finn, Roma McLaughlin and Amber Barrett are undertaking the UEFA B Licence course SPORTSFILE
The Football Association of Ireland will host new female-only UEFA coaching courses to cater for the growing number of women keen to progress in their coaching careers.
Applications are now open for the UEFA Women’s Only C Licence and UEFA Women’s Only B Licence courses, which will help to elevate participants to elite level coaching.
Female coaching in the Republic of Ireland continues to grow with the number of women with a UEFA Licence increasing from 10 in 2016 to 330 as of January 2023.
There are also 20 members of the Ireland Women's National Team who are currently involved with UEFA courses in conjunction with the FAI.
FAI Head of Coach Education Niall O’Regan said: “Key to the success of the development of the number of women working in football now is the research we completed in 2016, which identified the specific barriers to the number of women working in coaching. Within that research it was clear that the development of women’s only courses has played a significant part in breaking down these barriers.
"In addition to this, seeing the number of the coaches from the women’s only courses progressing in their careers getting management and coaching and full-time employment in football, over the past few years we have seen 16 women employed full-time by the FAI who have completed the women’s only coach education. This is really important because it can’t be just a numbers game, it is all about developing quality coaches and then ensuring that there are roles and opportunities coming from the qualifications.”
FAI Director of Football Marc Canham said: "It is great to see more opportunities for female coaches being made available with female-only UEFA courses and it adds to our commitment to growing women and girls' football.
"We are continuing to work hard to provide pathways for female coaches and it is an objective set out in the 2022-2025 FAI Strategy to increase our number of UEFA licence holders amongst women. It is exciting to see more women progress in their coaching careers as they will have a positive impact at their clubs around the country following on from earning their coaching qualifications."
Coaches interested in applying for either of these courses require the mandatory pre-requisite qualifications, i.e. for UEFA C, coaches must have completed the UEFA Grassroots Leaders Certificate and for the UEFA B Licence coaches must have successfully completed the UEFA C Licence, with a minimum of six months since completing the course.
To apply for the courses, email a copy of your football CV, certificates and letter of support from your club. to orla.haran@fai.ie
