This summer, Aberdeen FC Community Trust coach Zubi Emele challenged himself to complete two coach education courses; the C Licence and the Children’s Award. These courses are each 5 days long and require the candidate to deliver content based around what they have learnt from Scottish FA tutors.

Zubi, who was born and grew up in Nigeria, first came into the Trust in 2013. He has since completed the required prerequisite courses while working at AFCCT and also coaches Jesus House AFC in his free time. This has been supported by the CashBack for Communities Scheme and Football Equity Project, with the aim of increasing the number of qualified coaches from ethnic minority communities. This support was again offered to Zubi when he expressed his desire to challenge himself even further, with the addition of mentoring sessions to assist his learning as much as possible.
 
Reflecting on his successful summer, Zubi identified a number of challenges that had to be overcome in order to succeed, stating that language and cultural differences were key. “Football is universal, but some of the terms used in the course were very different to those I grew up with back home in Nigeria. The spoken accent was also an issue at times for me, and for the kids within my sessions”. These barriers meant Zubi had to work very hard to not only take in the content of the course, but also to find ways of breaking these barriers down. Zubi also added “I had loads of support with these courses, most notably from AFC Community Trust and the SFA’s Equity Project. Numerous mentoring sessions before the assessment was a big help”.
 
AFCCT will continue to support the development of coaches and volunteers of diverse backgrounds, through partnerships with the Scottish FA and CashBack for Communities. These coaches are crucial to under-represented communities, providing young players and volunteers a role model to look up to within the game.