Launch of Team Manchester
We were extremely excited to officially launch our Team Manchester Coach Core project on the 21st of February at the Man City training academy.
While our partners and apprentices have been working hard since the 4th of January, we came together to celebrate this and see just how well our apprentices were already doing.
Starting the day with speeches from Ed Wray (Chairman of the Coach Core advisory board), Gary Laybourne (Coach Core Project Manager) and Team Manchester employer Phil Arbelo-Dolan (Sports Group) we also heard from City’s apprentice Shauna.
Shauna gave a very moving account of how her dreams as a player were dashed and she subsequently found it difficult to find meaning and progression particularly as she felt the area in which she lived sometimes worked against her. When she discovered Coach Core, she grabbed the opportunity with both hands and now has clear direction and motivation to become a professional sports coach in the future.
The apprentices then moved into the academy’s indoor arena, so that our apprentices could showcase their coaching skills to Lucy Bronze (City Ladies and England footballer) and former international Premier League legends, BT Sport ambassadors, Richard Dunne and Rio Ferdinand.
Our apprentices did a great job coaching a group of children to help improve their sporting skills whilst also ensuring Lucy, Richard and Rio were all part of the action! BT Sport then gave our apprentices the amazing opportunity to visit Etihad Stadium for a behind the scenes look at the Champions League match filming set, giving them an insight into the work that goes on in media. Rio Ferdinand was on hand to answer questions that our apprentices had about presenting the show and the research that happens beforehand.
The experience was then finished with our hosts Manchester City very kindly giving our apprentices tickets to see the team play in the crucial first leg of their Champions League tie against Monaco. Man City were even kind enough to arrange for one of the most memorable games in European cup history with the home side enduring a rollercoaster night to end up 5-3 victors!
We hope this is the start of a truly exciting and inspirational project within the city and feedback from apprentices and employers alike has already indicated this is the case.