Taking Pride in Our Work

football and education

Each year, we highlight the achievements of one of our programmes at our Annual Awards. Our delivery range is vast, and it is never an easy decision to single out one project, but this year, the accolade was justly received by our Football and Education team.

The development of the programme has been remarkable, growing at an incredible rate since September 2021, where 100 new learners joined us, with a further 100 joining in September of this year, meaning we are now working with over 200 learners, including 40 female learners – the highest percentage we’ve ever had in our Education and Employability department. Students are based at five different venues across the county. Particular achievements this academic year have seen one of our teams winning their league, two other teams finishing second and the Women’s team reached the EFL CEFA National Cup Semi-final. Two learners have trialled with professional academies, we have created an U21 team to develop and challenge our learners, and continued to progress talented female players through our Regional Talent Centre and on to our education courses whilst representing Derby County Women too. We have provided eight of our degree students with work placements within our squads, with two of them now moving into paid employment with the Trust. Most importantly, we are committed to enriching students through extra-curricular activity during their time with us. We have visited St George’s Park, taken part in NCS, hosted CV workshops and built a partnership with overseas scholarship provider FiveZero to open up opportunities beyond the programme. We are most proud of the fact that 97.32% of learners that start on our programme finish the full two-year course, which is testament to the efforts of our staff team, who work tirelessly to cater for every learner’s needs and ambitions.