BiG achieves its
“6th of the BEST” by delivering another 2 work experience schemes during the Summer 2014 holidays. There were 3 young people who took part in each programme with 2 benefitting from participating over a 3 weeks period across both schemes.
The 5 young people in total who took part across the 2 holiday football programmes were Michael Howell, Stef Michael, Kai Richardson (who also took part in the Summer 2013 scheme), Jamil Stewart and Jordan Morrison. During the first scheme, the boys were really tested as the holiday football programme saw for the first time a number of participants who were 12 and 13 years old, just 3 years or so older than the workers.
“BiG is different from other Work Experience schemes. It challenges many skills in an enjoyable and rewarding way. Lionel is keen to help develop the workers’ universal skills such as leadership and interpersonal skills and is excellent from a football perspective as
well. He has played and coached at a high level and this shows in his knowledge of football, but he is equally good with children, which I think is rare. He is easy to learn from and is the kind of coach I would want to become.”
Michae
l Howell
Like I always do, I initially spoke to all the workers to discuss the requirements of the scheme providing them with a copy of my one page brief that explained the general duties and the core transferable life skills that those on the scheme will be developing. I also spelled out what commitment I was expecting from potential candidates. Once the workers confirmed that they wanted to take advantage of the work experience opportunity, they and I signed their individual partnership agreement forms committing both parties to our responsibilities.
“Lionel took as much care in preparing and monitoring the progress of our son’s Work Experience scheme as he did in preparing the football sessions for the children being coached. He provided a very rich learning experience and gave constant feedback and encouragement throughout the two-week programme. He is the type of football coach that our son would himself like to be – concerned with helping children to develop very sound football skills, but at the same time also caring about their well-being and their broader character development. During his Work Experience, our son was able to practice and develop his coaching and leadership skills and he grew in confidence with working with children of diverse ages and football abilities. He also enjoyed it very much!”
Karen, Micahel’s mum
The workers attended the induction day in advance of the programme where all were given their documentations including a daily log booklet which they were committed to completing capturing all the duties they would perform and linking how they would demonstrate leadership, organisation, team working, communication and interpersonal skills. They were all given their rotas and I explained in more details each role and lessons learned from previous schemes and programmes.
“BiG summer coaching program has helped build my confidence. By interacting with the younger children, I learnt new and different ways in which I can help them develop their football performances. Taking the responsibility of a session and meeting and greeting parents, has given me the confidence to take on more coaching outside of BiG. After I had coached a session Lionel would give me feedback on the positives and negatives of my coaching performances. After every session I would write in my log book what I had done during that session. I now have the confidence to do more coaching and I am currently coaching the year 8 squad at my school.”
Stef Micahel
By the end of the work experience scheme, all workers increased all the key core life skills which I was determined in supporting them develop with some standing out demonstrating excellent leadership qualities. Every worker grew in confidence where their were noticeable differences in higher self esteems and an increase in the quality of interpersonal skills!
“I found the course very useful and helpful, not for the opportunity given to me to be involved in the work experience but as a person. It has helped me to increase my level of skills such as leadership and communication. Particularly where I had to lead groups and create session plans, where I had to be creative and come up with a session plan that would help the participants in a certain key skill. Lunch times were also good because it gave us a chance to communicate with the participants in a more fun way, as we did quizzes and other interactive sessions. It was a good opportunity to put my abilities to test and see where and what I can improve and also where my strengths are; which will help me in the future.”
Jamil Stewart
At the end of the holiday football programme, I conducted a wash-up session to conclude the work experience scheme where I signed off all the workers daily log booklets. At this session, the workers shared their experience and what they captured in their logs with each other and I was able to provide some key feedback, elaborating on what I had written in their one-page summary reports. I also was able to show them some video clips of their achievements and some development areas, and also discussed opportunities and ideas on how they could build on what they had experienced and skills they had developed.
“My son was offered an opportunity to be involved in a two week work experience at very short notice, so we wasn’t really sure what to expect. I am pleased to say, that my son felt immediately comfortable fitting in and slowly building up his courage to take on the tasks which were given to him. My son begun the programme as a very quiet and kept himself to himself type of child, but by the end of the two weeks, had remarkably changed into a young man who had matured (as much as one can over a few weeks), was discussing different aspects of life and where he could see himself, to the point where he was learning and enjoying himself so much on the Programme, that he was offered the chance to complete another week, to which he jumped at. Overall, I am very happy with the level of interest Lionel showed and taught my son over the short time, I know he has walked away with valuable work and life skills. I also want to say how professionally run the programme was, with every bit of detail from punctuality, appearance, team coordination and many other aspects which were carefully thought out and seen through by Lionel. I wish him all the success he deserves going forward!”
Nicole, Jamil’s mum
Well done and thank you all. I really enjoyed mentoring you!
