The latest WRU apprenticeship graduates were given the royal seal of approval by the Duke of Cambridge at the recent Wales v Australia match having completed the 12 month course with flying colours.
The WRU Coach Core apprenticeship was launched by the Duke of Cambridge two years ago with Coach Core having been founded by the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry following the 2012 Olympic Games to create careers for young people and transform sports coaching.
The apprenticeship enables groups of 18-24 year olds achieve Level 3 NVQ in Sports Development along with unique hands-on experience of delivering rugby in schools, clubs and community environments as part of the WRU rugby development team.
As with the initial group of apprentices in its first year, all 11 of last year’s apprentices have gone on to University or been offered full-time employment within sports development – an incredible 100% success rate for the scheme.
And this year’s new cohort of 18-24 year olds are well on the road to emulating that success having settled into roles within schools, colleges and community settings within the four south Wales rugby regions.
Current WRU apprentice Hannah Stephens is based in her home Scarlets region and has been working in primary schools, shadowing hub officers within schools and clubs and delivering disability rugby sessions for the past two months while already earning and putting into practice a number of qualifications including Level 1 certificates in coaching and refereeing, safeguarding and Tag Leaders Award.
She strongly believes that even in that short amount of time she has developed in confidence and maturity through dealing with a range of people from all walks of life.
“We are all thoroughly enjoying the apprenticeship,” said Hannah, who was previously unsure of her future options having dropped out of a University course.
“It’s given us such an insight into rugby and how we can personally develop and affect the game.
“I’ve played rugby since I was 6 and I’m passionate about giving children the same opportunities I had so it’s been fantastic to be able to introduce rugby to primary school children and also introduce them to club rugby.
“There are only 21 pupils in one of the rural schools and already four have started playing for clubs so that’s a real achievement.
“We’ve also been helping to deliver disability rugby in schools and in December we are currently running community based sessions in Carmarthen so that pupils can continue with their rugby outside school.”
As a player herself, Hannah is looking forward to using the Six Nations window to help encourage more girls to get involved in the game.
“I know how much I’ve gained from being involved in rugby over the years and I hope to be able to encourage more girls to get involved. The hype of the Women’s Six Nations will hopefully shine a light on women’s rugby in time for the new clusters season for girls which will kick off in March and carry on throughout the summer.
“I also want to continue to promote the game in general so that more children get involved with clubs outside school.”
Apprenticeship manager Carl Scales believes Welsh rugby gains as much if not more from the scheme as the young people themselves.
“It’s clear that our apprenticeship has become more popular already with the number and quality of applicants. The apprentices are fantastic ambassadors for the game out in the community. As young people themselves they relate so well to school pupils and club players and yet are also capable enough to deliver quite complex events such as the recent Super 7 U18 festival at the Arms Park.
“The feedback we receive from the apprentices is that they grow so much from the confidence we show in them to be a fully integrated section of the rugby development workforce and that in turn breeds confidence and success.”
Kira Philpott, who is now studying for a sports management degree at Cardiff Met after completing the apprenticeship last season said, “I feel like I’ve had a head start on my degree. I’m so much more confident as I’ve already put into practice a lot of what we study – I’ve learned some real-life lessons on the job so I feel like I can contribute more to my course and it’s definitely set me up for a future career in sport.”
