Dear All,

The UKCC Level 3 Units for delivery in 2009, have now been organised and advertised. The delivery of units 1-10 will be happening at Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Hatfield, Crystal Palace, Crawley, Plymouth, and in numerous locations in Wales. A variety of presenters will be used including coaches of Olympic gold medal winning athletes and support staff who are specialists in their field.

A number of coaches have also started to undertake the sports coach UK Level 3 Certificate for Mentoring in Sport. These coaches, in combination with the Youth Sport Trust, will be supporting a number of young talented coaches not only from Swimming but also Netball, Rugby League/Union and Football to develop expertise by 2016.

A group has been created to review the Level 1 and 2 Teaching Aquatics and Coaching Swimming syllabi. This is the first step of many to improve the content, quality and alignment of the asa/UKCC qualification programmes.

The Teacher/Coach licensing scheme is also undergoing a full review, and full details of the revised scheme will be available in January 2009.

An External Verifier meeting is taking place tomorrow (December 2nd) where recent activities in relation to the Final Approval Visits and the first batch of the External Verification course visits will be discussed. The agenda will involve a standardisation element to ensure consistency in approach across the External Verifiers.  

Processing times for results are continuing to improve and we are aiming to get Level 1 results to the candidates within four weeks. This reflects the hard work the team has been putting in over the past couple of months.

The Approved Centres have been sent a candidate registration confirmation form, which is to be filled in at the beginning of each course in order to obtain an accurate view of how many candidates are attending each course. It also speeds up the payment process so that results aren’t held up by the non-payment of fees. 

Centres in Germany, Cyprus and Gibraltar who are wishing to run asa courses have approached the Institute of Swimming (IOS) and we are in discussions with these centres about joining the IOS network. Carole McArdle is involved on behalf of the IOS as we look at the possibility of expanding our network to allow us to deliver on an international basis.

From January 1st 2009, the minimum age for asa UKCC Level 2 programmes will be reduced from 18 to 17 years. This is because the age for the Level 1 programmes is 16 and it will help to develop individuals through the Level 1 and 2 qualifications in a shorter time span.

Thanks for reading.

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