02 Oct 2014

Premier Skill project coordinator from British Council, Gabriel Gape says the initiative has achieved a lot since its inception in 2009.

Gape said in an interview after a five-day training course for Nhabe Regional Football Association coaches that the initiative impacted on the lives of many people noting that some people had managed to establish premier skill centres in the respective regions citing areas such as Lobatse.

In Lobatse, he said there was a newly established centre named African Stars, which promoted sports at grass root level.

He said eight centres had been launched around the country under the initiative. Premier Skill is an initiative of the English Premier in partnership with Botswana Football Association and British Council which uses football as a tool to develop a brighter future for young people around the world.

Gape said the initiative target people who are interested in coaching and lack skills or qualification and its main objective is to train coach educators by giving them premier skills so that they impart the knowledge of life skills to young children through football.

He said trainees are taught football-based content and that football is not about kicking the ball but also moulding young people to be responsible leaders of tomorrow.

He said trainees are given the opportunity to test their skills by working with pupils to give them expertise and support that they needed to develop their own community football projects.

The aim of the British Council, he said is to reach all regions country wide noting that currently seven regions had been covered.

For her part, the instructor Barobi Nwako who graduated from the Premier Skill coach educators training in 2012 said at the end of the training, they expect coaches to be in a position to build on huge interest in football, deliver high quality football training to young people in district.

Ngwako said the initiative is a welcome breather for the country to increase on the number of qualified coaches. She said the training is very critical as most coaches interact with children and that they would be in a position to impart the right skills to them so that they grow into responsible citizens.

Nwako said through Premier Skill, young people including the most vulnerable in society are given opportunity to learn life skills to become better integrated into their local communities to develop their skills for employability and to raise their self-esteem.

She also revealed that since its inception, the project has produced positive results as it aimed to promote sustainable legacy in the country by empowering qualified coaches trained by the Premier League to mentor a new wave of grass root community coaches.

Nwako is one of the coach educators who managed to establish a centre at Palapye. She said during training session, coaches are taught to be change agents in the society focusing on social ills among young people while children are taught to balance sports and academics, refrain from criminal activities and all unacceptable behaviour that would ruin their future.

Nwako said at the end children are at a position to make informed decision especially when they did not excel academically, they opt to take part in sport. Ends