Dear Swimming Community,
Swimming Australia and the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association (ASCTA) are proud to jointly unveil Australian swimming’s new coach education courses and accreditation levels. This initiative will strengthen coach development for our sport, optimise performance and aid the retention of exceptional coaches across the country.
Background
This redesign of the coach accreditation structure and course content addresses shortcomings that coaches and others have presented to us through independent consultant reviews of recent years.
Further, in late 2017, Swimming Australia partnered with Victoria University (VU) to redevelop the existing Silver and Gold Swimming Coach Education courses. The following year, a comprehensive research project was undertaken to help define a new National Coaching Strategy for Australian Swimming leading into Tokyo 2020 and beyond.
With a united future vision for swimming coaching in Australia, Swimming Australia (SA) and ASCTA decided to modernise our coach education system – combining online modules and in-person workshops – in line with modern best practice across the sport and training and education sectors. We have been working together to bring this major development to fruition and, importantly, we would like to thank the many coaches who have contributed to reviewing and piloting the new modules and workshops over the past 12-18 months.
We are excited about how this will improve our sport and:
- provide coaches with a manageable pathway of learning that ensures the step from one level of accreditation to the next adds real educational value, with a demonstrated difference between each level;
- provide equity of access for coaches who meet the entry requirements based on demonstrated coaching competencies;
- help coaches build on previous learnings in a structured and modular way;
- provide coaches with opportunities to test themselves and their athletes in a variety of different environments and competitions;
- reinforce to the coaching community that a thirst for knowledge and personal development are important at all levels of coaching;
- support coaches to incorporate techniques to address their own coaching welfare to optimise coaching performance and retain great coaches.
Further information
These changes see two separate components of SA Coach Accreditation and ASCTA Coach Performance Recognition. Coach Accreditation includes the successful completion of the SA online coach education courses and face-to-face workshops. ASCTA Coach Performance Recognition includes coach and athlete achievements in the pool.
To align with the new-look Coach Education courses, the related SA Coach Accreditations have been rebranded and will now be known as:
- Development (previously Bronze) – Successful Development Coaches create experiences which focus on the benefits of developing skills and increasing fitness. Their enthusiasm and encouragement provide extra motivation for participants to develop a love of swimming and sustain this interest over their lives.
- Advanced (previously Silver) – Successful Advanced Coaches bring out each swimmer’s ability by identifying individual needs and planning and implementing suitable training programs based on individual swimmer needs. They implement support systems that develop the individual swimmer’s physical and psychological fitness and maximises their performance.
- Performance (previously Gold) – Successful Performance Coaches develop people and structures to sustain success for swimming. They do this by balancing data and information with intuition and experience to make accurate evidence-based decisions under pressure. They trust their swimmers to take responsibility for their own performances, and they welcome feedback.
More information on the new education courses and related accreditation levels can be found here: Coaching Courses.
From 1 July 2019, Swimming Australia will issue Coach Accreditation. Current Coach Accreditations will automatically be mapped directly across to the new accreditation levels as follows:
- Bronze Accreditation will become Development Accreditation
- Silver Accreditation will become Advanced Accreditation
- Gold Accreditation will become Performance Accreditation.
Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Coach Performance Recognition will continue to be recognised, celebrated, and awarded by ASCTA who will confirm the criteria for achieving such coach performance recognition in due course.
We are excited to announce we will be offering three (3) core workshops for the Advanced Course and one (1) Elective workshop (which can be used for the Advanced or Performance Course) at the ASCTA Convention 2019. To register for any of the face-to-face workshops at the Convention, please go to the ASCTA Convention website – asctaconvention.ascta.com.
Further to the above, and prior to attending any coach education workshop(s) at the ASCTA Convention, coaches will need to complete the online enrolment for either the full Advanced Course or the full Performance Course, and complete the associated e-learning module(s) before attending the Convention. Links for these full course enrolments will be made available to registered participants from 2 April 2019. Each e-learning module will take 2-3 hours to complete.
Additional detail is contained in the FAQs that follow this letter. For further information please contact Paul Malcolm, SA General Manager – Industry Partnerships & Member Services at paul.malcolm@swimming.org.au or on 0457 537 919.
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Leigh Russell |
Brendon Ward CEO, ASCTA |
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who will this affect?
- How will it affect coaches?
- Can coaches re-do an education course? / Do coaches need to re-do education courses?
- What happens to my current accreditation?
- What if coaches have already commenced a course?
- Do coaches still qualify for the 10% course bundle discount if they completed and paid for one module as part of the pilot last year?
- Do coaches who have completed an Elective module as part of the pilot last year, have to enrol in another Elective to enrol in the full course?
- Can coaches do additional Elective modules for their own professional development?
- How long do I have to complete my course?
- If a coach has been involved in the pilot last year and enrolled in one or more modules already, do they have to pay again to attend a workshop at the ASCTA Convention?
- Will face-to-face workshops be available more frequently?
- Will performance recognition be required to achieve coach accreditation in the future?
- What is happening with the existing Bronze, Silver and Gold coach recognition?
- Do I need to maintain my ASCTA Membership?
- be issued with SA coach accreditation;
- ensure working with children requirements are maintained;
- be eligible for State and National swimming meet Event Accreditation;
- for selection on State and National teams; and
- to access insurance.
- What is the process for recognition of prior learning (RPL) for existing coaches?
- Where can I find more details?
All current accredited and prospective swimming coaches in Australia, and those wishing to undertake further education and professional development to advance their career in coaching.
Coaches will be able to complete coach education courses via a combination of online learning and assessments, face-to-face workshops and mentoring. Assessment will be a combination of online quizzes, research projects, case studies, assignments, attendance at and contribution to workshops, post-workshop reflections in the home club/squad environment, and completion of practical hours under guidance from a Mentor.
If coaches already hold coaching accreditation, they don’t have to re-do a course, but they will need to continue to do professional development to gain points for re-accreditation as per the current system. The full courses are available to be re-done if desired and individual modules will be available to complete for professional development.
Your current accreditation will be directly mapped to the equivalent education level and your previous performance achievement will also be mapped directly to the new criteria (which ASCTA is finalising for release in due course).
If a coach has already started a coach education course under the old criteria, they will have the option of either finishing under that criteria or transferring to the new course.
Yes they do. Swimming Australia will provide coaches who took part in the pilot last year with a token code to ensure they receive the full course bundle discount.
No they don’t. The pilot elective enrolment can count towards the full Advanced Course or Performance Course requirements. Alternatively, coaches can enrol in another elective and count the current elective towards professional development credits, re-accreditation points or the next level education course.
Absolutely. Additional Elective modules can count towards professional development credits, re-accreditation points or towards the next education course.
You have three (3) years to complete your course including all practical hours.
No, as long as the workshop they wish to attend is the one required for the module they have already enrolled in. Module enrolment covers the cost of workshop attendance.
Yes. Advanced and Performance workshops will be available at State ASCTA conferences later this year and a full yearly schedule will be published in due course
No. The new accreditation structure does not include ‘performance criteria’ to progress through the education courses.
Coach performance recognition will continue to be awarded in line with criteria being finalised by ASCTA.
Yes. You need to be a member of ASCTA to;
There will be an RPL process available from 1 July 2019, for coaches to apply for credits towards the new coaching modules. Details of the requirements for RPL will be available in due course.
More details on the education levels, the criteria for completing the new courses and the requirements for gaining accreditation can be found here.
