The Lifelong Learning Coach

Lifelong learning is the ongoing, voluntary and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development but also self-sustainability as well as competitiveness and employability - European Commission

All in all, learning is everywhere! There are opportunities to learn all around us. Let us identify some of them starting from those afforded by the children you coach, then those linked to YOU and your behaviours, and thereon working our way outwards. Here we go:

• THE CHILDREN: No doubt, the best resource you have for learning. Keep asking yourself what are their NEEDS and WANTS and how can you address them in a child-centred way and what you need to learn or know to do that?

YOURSELF: Take ownership of your coaching and your learning. Have an OPEN MIND, be REFLECTIVE, and SELF-DIRECT your learning.

• OTHER COACHES: Learn from more experienced coaches: OBSERVE other coaches at practice, adopt a MENTOR or join or form a COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE.

• YOUR ENVIRONMENT: Identify how can the club, school or community group you are involved with become more child-centred, offer programmes that benefit the children, and support you to become a better coach.

• In addition, you can attend COACH EDUCATION COURSES. Sign up for a coach education course run by your national federation. And in between coach education courses, what about attending CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT opportunities. Maybe a workshop or a conference on whatever topic you want to improve on.

• READ and VIEW: Finally, you can also read books and articles on coaching or view coaching related websites, videos and blogs on the internet. There is no limit to what is available online.

For more about being a lifelong learner, please watch the two videos below from our Massive Open Online Courses...