Community Football Coaching
Community Football Coaching is a discipline that sits at the intersection of sport, education, and community development, preparing practitioners who can use football as a vehicle for wider social impact. Football is the most widely played sport in the world, and its power to engage people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities makes it an exceptionally effective tool for promoting physical health, social cohesion, youth development, and inclusion. Community football coaches work not only on technical and tactical development but on the broader human dimensions of what football can do for participants and their communities.
At the University of St Mark and St John, this three-year full-time programme develops your understanding of coaching science, sports development, community engagement, and the educational and social context in which community sport operates. You will study sports coaching principles, exercise physiology, performance analysis, youth development, safeguarding, and the policy frameworks within which community sport and physical activity programmes are delivered. The programme is developed with professional employability in mind, and the Plymouth location in the South West provides a range of opportunities to engage with community football organisations, clubs, and local authority sport development programmes.
Graduates of Community Football Coaching programmes work in football clubs from grassroots to professional academies, in local authority sport and leisure services, in community sports trusts, in educational settings, and in national governing bodies such as the FA and its county associations. Many pursue additional coaching qualifications and licences alongside their degree, building the professional portfolio that employers in football and community sport expect. Some graduates also move into sports development, physical education, youth work, or sports administration, where the combination of coaching knowledge and community understanding is broadly applicable.