Core Learning Services helps BADMINTON England train young leaders
BADMINTON England – the sport’s governing body in England – is taking its first steps in e-learning, with the help of Core Learning Services (CLS) managed by Paul Higgins.
With nearly 750 new ‘Change 4 Life’ badminton clubs springing up in England over the last year alone, there is an immediate and growing demand for people to take on various leadership roles in these – as well as in England’s already well established badminton clubs.
Melissa Handford, BADMINTON England’s Young People’s Manager, explained: “We’re keen to encourage young people to get involved with badminton not just as players but also as coaches and club leaders. However, our current junior awards are just that: they’re geared to juniors; not the 16 to 25 year olds who could be club coaches and leaders.
“Moreover, we realised that not everyone wants to be – or has the skills to be – a successful coach. They might prefer to be a leader or administrator.
“Allied to that, we recognised that today’s young people are comfortable working – and learning – online. That led us to consider e-learning as a highly effective and economic way of delivering our new Leaders Award, covering ‘event leader’, ‘activity leader’ and ‘club leader’.”
Melissa and her colleague, Katherine Taylor, BADMINTON England’s Head of Education and Training, consulted the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure (NSASAL) – principally because it wanted BADMINTON England’s new Leaders Award to link with the national Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). In particular, this award will supplement and support young leaders with the delivery of the new Change 4 Life Badminton Clubs.
“We want to link our award to the ‘bigger’, national picture of qualifications,” said Melissa. “Initially, we expect some 1,500 people a year to sign up to study for this new Leader Award online.”
She added: “We also asked the NSASAL to recommend companies in the e-learning field with whom we could work and they suggested CLS.”
BADMINTON England’s relationship with CLS began last September.
Starting the project from scratch, CLS and BADMINTON England have designed and developed e-learning materials covering three modules: event leader, activity leader and club leader. Each of these e-learning modules will be accessed – seamlessly - via BADMINTON England’s website.
The event leader award deals with a person’s ability to organise a successful event; the club leader award deals with such skills as developing a club development plan and making successful grant applications, while the activity leader award examines a person’s ability to support a coach, take responsibility for health and safety issues, carry out risk assessments and so on.
Melissa explained: “There’s a lot more to being part of a badminton – or any sports – club than playing the sport. Jobs need doing – such as fund-raising, writing press releases, managing the club’s website, event support, administration, on-the-day organisation, marshalling/officiating, making refreshments and co-ordinating results.
“These and other issues are covered in the e-learning modules. Of course, not only did we need to include the correct information and put it into a logical order but we also needed to make each module attractive and engaging for the learner.
“We considered what the learner needed to learn and so we had to focus – in terms of content and presentation – on what was important, rather than on what was ‘nice to know’. We then had to decide how to present that in the most effective way for the learner to be able to learn.
“We’ve also included online tasks for the learners,” she added. “This enables the learners to check that they have learned what they are supposed to learn – and it allows us to give the learners valuable feedback on their progress.”
The final assessment for each award takes the form of a practical assessment - where each candidate is supported by a ‘learning buddy’ - so the award is not purely dependent on learners’ online performance.
The project is close to ‘going live’, with feedback currently being evaluated from those involved in the pilot stage. Melissa commented: “As with any project which covers completely new ground, this one has taken slightly longer than we’d anticipated.
“Throughout the whole process, though, we’ve been delighted with the way CLS have advised us and facilitated our requirements. This is especially true of CLS team, which empathises with the needs and issues of the sports industry and has proved most helpful in translating our requirements in terms of learning materials into the online world.”
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