Case study
The FA - Playmaker
A free and comprehensive learning platform for grassroots FA volunteers, the EE Playmaker online course is an invaluable asset for guiding this critical resource.
Background
A history-steeped past
Almost 160 years ago at the Freemasons’ Tavern, London, The Football Association – or The FA as it’s more widely known today – was established with the remit to create ‘a definite code of rules for the regulation of the game’. Today, this not-for-profit governing body’s mission has broadened to accommodate an ethos of encouragement and inclusivity.
‘Time For Change’, the FA’s strategy for the 2020-2024 cycle, draws upon the Association’s unique ability to unite all parts of society, and seeks not only to strengthen the structure and support through which major tournament wins can be secured but also to define football once and for all as “a game which embraces diversity and battles discrimination”.
Critical to success
And yet none of that is possible without the backbone of the entire sport, the army of more than half a million volunteers who week in, week out devote their time to grassroots football, supplying advice, assistance and motivation to players of every age, gender and background across the country.
Solution
With the mission to remove barriers and open learning opportunities to potential volunteers in mind, The FA:
- Used existing technology to reduce costs, aid development time and pressures, comply with accessibility standards and track learner interaction.
- Harnessed the strengths of its L&D Team, crucially deploying a team to get under the skin of the original barriers, ensuring new learning programs were built to “help learning happen, rather than just provide content for content’s sake”, in the words of L&D Manager Nick Baker.
- Organized extensive stakeholder management by engaging with more than 20 internal and external parties with coordinated stakeholder management across a range of touch points at every level.
- Made completion easy through the FA’s open-access website, The Boot Room. With a clear overview of the course structure, and access to The FA’s LMS (learning management system) portal and its suite of reactive resources. Thanks to a thorough examination of the LMS analytics, the team was able to schedule regular email “nudges” to send at common drop-off points, prompting learners to continue progressing through the course. A feedback button and help center widget enabled them to flag up any problems, with the option of contacting the Association’s Mon-Fri customer service team.
Outcomes
Building excitement for our partners
The commercial impacts for EE as the sponsor of Playmaker have been considerable, given the FA’s delight with the popularity of the course.
Bringing critical new volunteers to the game
Before the introduction of Playmaker, around 25,000 people signed up for the FA Level 1 course. In marked contrast, Playmaker’s status as a free and open/optional course has resulted in 175,000 enrolments and a hefty 115,000 completions to date.
Additionally, The FA has identified an improvement in diversity for new volunteers. In the last 18 months, they have seen female volunteers increase from 16% to 18% and non-white volunteers rise from 16% to 25%.
Challenge
Research revealed that one of the biggest challenges FA Education faced was upskilling new volunteers on key competencies. They also identified a lack of volunteer-specific training. Before the pandemic, no such programs were available through the FA. Instead, all volunteers had to complete The Association’s basic coaching qualification, FA Level 1 in Coaching Football. Not only was this costly, it was only hosted at set venues, delivered face-to-face in large groups, and took a daunting 35 hours to complete.
Feedback from potential volunteers sent a clear message that the Level 1 was too expensive, too advanced, too lengthy, and difficult to access.
A mission to increase volunteers
With its sights set on a new training program, the FA sought to unleash the potential of willing volunteers to get involved in grassroots football. To succeed, it needed a course that would remove these barriers by:
- Reducing volunteer costs.
- Improving access to learning material whilst reducing learner seat time.
Additionally, to truly embrace diversity and battle discrimination, volunteers needed to reflect players from every race, gender and walk of life, meaning the organization needed to attract more females and those from ethnically diverse communities.
Through digital learning, Playmaker is helping us to unlock and engage a wider, more diverse workforce – one with the skills to provide high-quality experiences for thousands of players. We can already see the impact of the qualification and know it will only continue to grow.
David Reeve, Senior National Development Manager
A future-proofed association
Nearly half of the volunteers went on to take full certification, and an incredible 94% of volunteers felt that Playmaker prepared them for their role.
“By creating a simple ‘first step’ into football, EE Playmaker is helping to diversify the grassroots workforce – and is particularly popular with female volunteers. The structure of the course provides a clear learner journey and allows individuals to study at a pace that suits them.”
– Lucy Pearson, Director of FA Education, stakeholder: project sponsor.
Today, with improved diversity, better upskilling, and greater numbers of volunteers than ever before, EE Playmaker has effectively plugged The FA’s volunteer gap – future-proofing the important role it plays in creating a game for everyone.
This case study was written in partnership with the team at Learnovate Research Centre, a not-for-profit research center focused on learning technologies. We used Learnovate’s PEAS model to structure the consultancy with the customer.
About The FA - Playmaker
Use Cases
Upskilling
Industry
Hospitality
Audience
175,000
Course enrolments
Location
UK
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