The British Council is delighted to bring the hugely successful Premier Skills programme to South Africa in 2017. Premier Skills is a partnership between the Premier League and the British Council, which uses football as a tool to engage with and develop the skills of young people. Drawing upon the Premier Leagues’ domestic expertise, it uses football to tackle a variety of social issues in the community, such as health, disability, gender, inclusion and education.
Premier Skills has already delivered tremendous impact in 21 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Since 2007, it has created training opportunities benefitting 2,300 grassroots coaches and referees who in turn have reached more than 400,000 young people.
Working closely with the South African government, NGOs and local community partners, Premier Skills aims to reach grassroots football coaches from across all nine provinces. These coaches will receive face-to-face training, using highly skilled coaches and referee trainers from the Premier League and its clubs. They are then supported in developing their own community football projects.
The expert training that prospective young coaches and referees receive through Premier Skills will also help the long- term health of football in South Africa.
Find out more about Premier Skills.
Premier Skills English
In addition to coaching, Premier Skills also offers a range of football-based education materials for teachers and learners of English, which have been developed using the British Council’s world-class expertise in English.
Premier Skills English has a dedicated website, which provides a variety of online and downloadable learning materials such as games, competitions and classroom resources.
Visit the Premier Skills English website for more information.