Pumpherston - Educated Pass Initiative
Players from Pumpherston United's under 14 squad attended the first of a series of planned Educated Pass Initiative sessions that involves Initiative members working with the players to highlight education pathways using football as a theme. Joe Meloy, the Widening Participation Officer from the University of Edinburgh attended the first session in order to introduce the Educated Pass Initiative to the players and explain what lies ahead for them.
The Educated Pass Initiative aims to give players an insight into College and University life and introduces the importance of having skills and a good level of Education to fall back on should a career in the competitive world of a professional football player not be realised. The timing of the initiative could not be better for the Pumpherston United students as further education choices are currently the topic of conversation at most secondary schools for these 13 year olds.
The interactive course aims to open several lines of thought on education for the players, and hopes to draw discussion and focus on options for further education and careers that may appeal to them for later life. During the course the players will visit Colleges and Universities to get an understanding of what life is like during further education and time spent at these facilities. The players will also visit a local football stadium to take a look at the range of careers that take place away from the football field itself including finance and administration, advertising, catering and hospitality, fitness and much more. The series concludes with a tournament between all the teams that are involved in the initiative this season however, that's not the end of the road for Pumpherston United and the Educated Pass Initiative. It is envisaged that the program will return to Pumpherston to provide the same support to younger teams when they reach the same stage in their academic careers in the near future.
The Educated Pass Initiative started as a one off program delivered to Ayr United's youth set up by the University of Edinburgh after Ayr's youth manager requested a program to engage their players in education through their coaching programme. There was a change of structure at the club shortly after however, the course was hailed a success and so became the Educated Pass Initiative. The University of Edinburgh held talks with the SFA and SYFA. As a result a member of the University's Widening Participation team was invited to sit on the SFA Fit for Purpose Committee; while the SYFA granted their full support of the initiative and offered to provide Youth Football contact details, identifying specific local youth team coaches to approach.
The project is innovative in that it targets boys - particularly those from under-represented groups - through their coaches and clubs and builds upon their commitment to sport to generate a similar interest and commitment to education. It will use sports related courses as a ‘hook’ but will also give generic advice on school, college and university pathways.
As the lead partner of Educated Pass, the University of Edinburgh is supported by the educational institutes Stevenson College, Telford College and West Lothian College. In order to maximise the benefit of Educated Pass, the under 14 squads of the local youth football clubs are specifically targeted. The work of Educated Pass therefore deliberately coincides with the Standard Grade selection level of the boys in this age group. In January 2008, Educated Pass was granted a further 3 years funding by the Sutton Trust.
For more information visit www.pumpherston-united/Educated_Pass and www.sra.ed.ac.uk/educatedpass/
