The Scottish FA Coach Education Department enjoyed another landmark year in 2023, with over 4000 new coaches achieving qualifications for the first time. 

There are now 53,233 qualified coaches in Scotland, with 15,326 now actively working in a coaching role - an increase of 12% on 2023.

The amount of active, qualified female coaches in the country also increased by an impressive 20% in 2023 up to 1247, up from 1,040 in 2022. 

2023 also saw the latest UEFA Pro-Licence course get underway in June, with 20 candidates winning places on the prestigious course. The group have already enjoyed trips to Romania for the UEFA Under-21 European Championship and London - to visit three Premier League clubs - on top of meet-ups at Norton House and at Hampden Park, hearing from the likes of Ange Postecoglou, David Moyes, Robbie Neilson and Mixu Paatelainen.

Leading figures from the girls' and women's game also spent time on study excursions during the year, attending the Women's European Under-19 Championship in the summer before visiting UEFA Women's Champions League winners FC Barcelona Femini. The two Erasmus-funded trips allowed Scottish FA staff to further collaborate with SWPL club staff on the efforts to evolve the elite domestic player pathway for girls and women, whilst our UEFA Elite Youth A Licence students and Club Academy Scotland (CAS) also visited SL Benfica as part of the funding programme.

With the girls' and women's game in mind, the Coach Education Department also made the decision to run two female-only offerings in the latter part of the year -  the UEFA C-Licence (Youth / Adult Pathway) and the UEFA C-Licence (Children's Pathway). With support from Scotland Women's National Team Head Coach Pedro Martinez Losa, 32 coaches graduated from the courses, with graduates including current international players, as well as coaches working both within the Scottish game and abroad. 

2023 was also a year that saw the Coach Education department expand its portfolio of courses, with the introduction of several new awards. A Coach Educator and Developer Award was introduced in the spring, designed to equip and upskill the coach educator and coach developer workforce in Scotland, while a brand-new UEFA C Licence (on the Children’s Pathway) was also launched. 

The UEFA Grassroots Leader Award was adopted during the summer, and by the end of the year more than 3,000 coaches had completed the necessary pre-requisites to be given this award. In addition, the Scottish FA were selected as one of only five countries who would pilot the exciting new UEFA B Fitness Licence. This award, which examines the evolving importance of health and fitness in the modern men’s and women’s games, as well as the increase in physical demands on elite players, was designed by UEFA in collaboration with the Scottish FA.

As early adopters of best practice, the Scottish FA Coach Education department were ratified once more as full member of the UEFA Coaching Convention, which included the launch of the UEFA Youth B Licence, with two courses being delivered and the expectation that this age and stage specific course will offer an exciting and vibrant pathway for aspiring coaches in the future.

Our university degree programme witnessed it’s first-ever Honours year cohort, with students already making notable contributions to the game in Scotland in performance analysis with Premiership clubs, underage international squads and coaching work being undertaken at our Scottish FA JD Performance Schools.

The extremely popular Talent ID pathway launched the Talent ID Licence, there being in excess of 500 graduates at this level as they prepare themselves for the release of the Sporting Director Certificate in 2024.

Greig Paterson, Head of Coach Education & Development, “Year on year, the achievements of the Coach Education team never fails to amaze me.

"We have an excellent team of wonderful practitioners who are extremely knowledgeable in their field as well as having brilliant relationships internally and externally with key people that allows us to position ourselves very well strategically and make seismic changes, adaptations and improvements to our coach education offering, proving that we can be one of the very best coach education providers in Europe - if not the world.

"That said, all that would not be possible without the coaches who place their faith and trust in us for their ongoing coach education and personal and professional development. I think I speak for our entire team that one of the best things about this job is seeing those coaches who have engaged with our programme going onto achieve some wonderful things in the game, whether that be at grassroots level, the elite professional level, or even in the many specialisms that we now offer.”