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Level 4 Sports Coach Apprenticeship, School & PE Pathway
The Level 4 Sports Coach Apprenticeship, which sees apprentices design and deliver coaching programmes that focus on the acceleration of sustainable mastery of children’s psychomotor skills and wider physical education standards.
The Apprenticeship at a Glance
Including all elements of the Sports Coach Standard, apprentices will be expected to develop into a leading role within Physical Education, overseeing the development of a detailed curriculum and the mentoring and leadership of those in their team. Roles include those mentioned above as well as:
- Ensure the design and delivery of high-quality, inclusive curricular and extracurricular lessons that meet school standards through whole child development and sustainable psychomotor skills using a mastery approach to learning.
- Profile development, to set and monitor physical education targets and plans based on measurement of participants’ cognitive, physical, social, emotional [whole child] attributes and psychomotor skills.
- Facilitate learning and skill acquisition of participants by creating positive coaching environments that apply learning theories, behaviour management techniques, technological advancements and wider support mechanisms.
- Provide support to participants and the wider coaching team through progressive coaching programmes, at events or competitions.
- Use up-to-date knowledge of wider issues affecting the coaching environment to proactively influence best practice across the coaching team.
Entry Requirements
- An apprentice should hold relevant experience and Level 2/3 qualifications before undertaking this apprenticeship.
- An apprentice is ideally contracted to at least 30 hours per week to ensure no extended duration is needed.
- An apprentice’s contract of employment must cover the length of the apprenticeship.
- A minimum of 6 hours a week of an apprentice’s contracted time must be allocated to ‘off-the-job’ training.
- Apprentices aged 19+
This is a high-level coaching apprenticeship designed for individuals in leadership roles who have responsibility for, and influence over, less experienced coaches. Applicants should have several years of independent coaching experience and, at a minimum, hold a Level 2 coaching qualification or equivalent.
End Point Assessments (EPA)
The end-point assessment process is conducted by an independent organisation, will take a maximum of 2 months and will comprise of the following components:
- Practical observation with question and answers
- Professional discussion (supported by portfolio of evidence)
- Portfolio of evidence (between 10 and 15 pieces of evidence)
- Performance in the EPA will determine the apprenticeship grade of distinction, pass or fail.
Start date
Flexible
Level
Level 4
Duration
24 months (inc. EPA)
Delivery
Blended learning with one to one support
Level 4 Sports Coach
What Does the Apprenticeship Involve?
School sport coaches profile children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development needs. They measure psychomotor, technical and tactical skills in a range of physical activity contexts drawn from the Department for Education’s National Curriculum to enable physical education targets to be agreed. These results are used to create a high-level curriculum plan that considers school term schedules and a ‘whole child’ development approach. The training equips apprentices with the skills and experience to be a high level sports coach. These skills include:
- Develop transformational coaching strategies and tactics that consider sector, sport, organisation and participants unique needs.
- Facilitate the development of the coaching team through due diligence, inductions, development and performance monitoring.
- Deliver effective coaching services through industry support networks and a collaborative, cohesive and competent coaching team.
- Design and deliver progressive programmes and selects coaching pedagogies that maximise engagement, whole child/person development and accelerates sustainable skill acquisition.
FAQs
An apprenticeship is a paid job where the employee learns and gains valuable experiences. Alongside on-the-job training, apprentices spend at least 20% of their working hours completing classroom-based learning with Venture Training & Education Ltd, which leads to a nationally recognised qualification.
To start and complete an apprenticeship, you’ll need an employer to hire you as an apprentice. Typically, this will be a school or a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT—a group of schools) where you can complete your on-the-job training. If a school or MAT is interested in taking you on as an apprentice, their designated lead should contact us to discuss training aligned with our apprenticeship standards and qualifications.
If you don’t currently have an employer, complete our contact form to connect with us about apprenticeship vacancies available in your area.
Our apprenticeships are delivered over 12-18 months. Following a structured programme of blended learning, our tutors will delivery sessions that help to support you in developing knowledge, skills and behaviours required to complete your apprenticeship. The majority of the working week will be spent in school working alongside our education team. 20% of the week will be allocated to theory sessions and practical training days at a designated Venture & Training Education facility. There will also be regular progress reviews held with your tutor and visits to your workplace.
Apprenticeships are fully funded through two methods: either via a levy-paying employer or through the non-levy funding route.
The apprenticeship levy is paid by large employers. Every employer who pays the levy has a digital account where they can access their levy funds to spend on apprenticeship training.
Smaller employers (Non-Levy) – those with a total annual pay bill of less than £3 million – pay just 5% of the cost of their apprenticeship training and the Government pays the rest.
Although very similar, qualifications vary from apprenticeships slightly.
Although we recommend work placements for all of our qualifications, they are achieved by completing designated tasks and assignments to achieve the associated level.
Apprenticeships require 80% of time given to work placements and completion of the standard not only requires the completion of tasks and assignments but also an End Point Assessment (EPA) from an external verifier. End-point assessment (EPA) is the final stage of an apprenticeship. It is an impartial assessment of whether your apprentice has developed the skills, knowledge and behaviours outlined in the apprenticeship standard.
As well as successfully completing the EPA, an apprentice may need to complete, and pass, several additional requirements before completion of the apprenticeship. This might include mandatory English and maths qualifications.
Each of our qualifications have certain prerequisites to allow you to join the course. Please contact us to ask what these are.
For the Level 3 Qualifications and apprenticeships – Level 2/GCSEs may be required.
The Level 4 Sports Coach is an advanced coaching apprenticeship and interested candidates must be in a leadership role where they are responsible for a wider team. As a minimum we would expect candidates applying for this to have numerous years independent coaching experience and to hold relevant coaching qualifications (level 2 minimum). All the above criteria must be met to be considered for the apprenticeship.
If you are looking to take on an apprentice and have an interest in the standards and qualifications that we currently offer here at Venture Training & Education – Fill in our enquiry form and one of our team will be in touch to arrange a call to discuss your needs.