Advanced Coach (Level 4)
Are you a high performing coach looking to use research and expertise to enhance your programme?
The Level 4 Advanced Coach Certificate is designed for coaches who want to develop their practice to the highest level, irrespective of the level of athletes they work with. This professional education programme has been designed to create an optimum learning environment for coaches.
On successful completion you will be able to design, implement and evaluate the process and outcomes of long-term specialist coaching programmes significantly impacting on the learning, development and performance of your athletes/participants and on the sport as a whole.
How is the Award structured?
The Award includes a Post Graduate (PG) Diploma in Professional Sports Coaching Practice. It is a work-based learning course designed to provide you with theory and research to challenge, support and inspire current coaching practice. During the two year course, there will be distance learning opportunities, a residential coaching symposium, and visits by coaches and technical mentors to your host club.
You will be required to complete 360° feedback and work with specialists to support your development, provide a coaching log as well as completing assessments.
These assignments will be relevant to your own situation, enabling you to apply any findings directly to your own coaching environment and allowing you to draw upon your own coaching practice and experience. All assignments are mapped to the Level 4 Advanced Coach outcomes that you are working towards and will be counted as additional evidence.
At the end of year two, following your successful completion of the PG Diploma, you will be invited to the final Level 4 Advanced Coach assessment. This will take the form of a presentation to a panel and will also include a professional discussion.
You may complete and be awarded the PG Diploma at the end of year two but find that you need to provide further evidence against the Level 4 Advanced Coach outcomes before being awarded a Level 4 Advanced Coach. You cannot however achieve the Level 4 Advanced Coach without meeting the assessment criteria of the PG Diploma.
At the end of this programme of study you have the option to continue your studies and complete credits to make the diploma up to Masters level.
Application criteria
This qualification is aimed at coaches who are committed to their own development, have the desire to learn, are open to taking on new ideas and to reflecting on their current coaching practice. Coaches interested in the programme will be invited to an information day to learn more about the programme, to decide if it is the right option for them, and to identify their next steps.
Applicants will also need to meet the following requirements:
- Hold a Level 3 Senior Club Coach or recognised equivalent.
- Show evidence of commitment to a high performing coach environment for the previous six years.
- Hold a range of evidence of on-going professional development.
- Provide two referees who can verify your coaching expertise and experience.
- Evidence of current coaching practice.
- Be athlete-centred in your approach to coaching.
- Hold (or aspire to hold) an ambassadorial role across sport.
- Have identified a mentor who will support sport based ‘technical development’.
How to apply
Please contact Loretta Williams, British Rowing Level 4 Programme Manager ([email protected]) to express your interest and request an application form:
The closing date for applications each year is the end of June for a September start.
The next start date will be September 2025, for which applications will open in February 2025. There will not be an intake in September 2024.
Further information
Level 4 Coach Richard Chambers, who graduated in 2023, reflects on how the course has helped him to develop his coaching practice here.
