Cairo, 14 September, 2015 – The hugely successful Premier Skills initiative run by the Premier League and the British Council returns to Egypt with a new Premier Skills workshop taking place from 10 – 14 September 2015 at Assiut University. It involves intensive training for 50 Women PE students from across Assiut. This workshop is the first football training ever given to women in Assiut, and is implemented by a grant from the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, along with the British Council and Premier League to help Egyptian professional or community coaches who develop new ideas to provide women and girls with access to football and endorse women empowerment through sports.
The grant fund has been designed to offer support for community projects and individual training opportunities that give women and girls access to football. The workshop is led by Egyptian Premier Skills coach educators, Ibrahim Ali, Passant Tarek, Fayza Haidear, and Omar Abdel Rashid. These coaches were certified by Premier League after joining a 3 years programme designed to deliver Premier Skills courses.
Jointly organised by the British Council, Premier League and the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports, Premier Skills launched its first phase in Egypt in 2007. In its second phase, which began in 2010, small grants were presented to 60 coaches from Ard El Lewa, Omraneya, Al Haram, Al Wara’a, Helwan, Manshiet Nasser, Azrita, Amerya, Assuit, Qena, and Aswan to initiate and develop community projects and provide leadership and communications skills through football.
“At home the Premier League and our Clubs have a long-held commitment and reputation for delivering high quality community and education programmes. Given our popularity and success internationally we felt it only right to take this approach to a wider community,” said Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore.
Premier Skills draws upon the Premier League’s global appeal and expertise in delivering community programmes in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network, track record of delivery and world class expertise in English.
Through Premier Skills, young people, including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability and raise their self-esteem.
Through Premier Skills English, teachers and learners of English are given free, compelling learning materials, drawing on football-based content from the most exciting football league in the world.
Premier Skills is a proven model, influencing institutional approaches to social action through football as well as providing direct training to coaches and referees.
Since Premier Skills began in 2007, 6,300 coaches and referees have been trained in 28* countries, who in turn have reached nearly one million young people.
*This includes Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China.
About Premiere League
Premier Skills is a partnership between the Premier League and the British Council which uses football as a tool to engage with and develop the skills of young people.
Since 2013, Premier Skills has run in 25 countries: Afghanistan, Botswana, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, USA, Vietnam and Zambia. Premier Skills has also previously operated in Cameroon, Malawi, Morocco and Singapore.
Premier Skills is flexible. It is adapted with local partners to meet their needs and to tackle specific issues relevant to that country.
Premier Skills continually evolves. New elements are being added, including enterprise skills for young people, policy dialogue seminars, support for existing projects to enable long-term sustainability and exciting new interactive English materials.
Premier Skills is engaging and empowering women and girls at all levels of the programme, with the aim for a minimum participation rate of 50% girls and women in 2016.
For further information please contact:
Ola Tanani, Corporate Communications Manager, British Council Egypt. Tel: +(202) 3300 1851. Email: Ola.Tanani@Britishcouncil.org.eg
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.
We work in more than 100 countries and our 7000 staff – including 2000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the Arts and delivering education and society programmes.
You can also keep in touch through the British Council Egypt Facebook page
