The academy recognises the importance of providing care for its young players and we take great pride in ensuring players feel supported throughout their apprenticeship. For this reason, our Head of Player Care Adam Jones is available throughout the year should any players wish to book a welfare meeting with him to discuss any issues or concerns they have. Adam also operates the weekly welfare questionnaire to assess any areas a player may be struggling or excelling in.
Life Skills & Workshops
Life skills enable people to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Life skills-based education addresses specific content to achieve specific goals and this is the aim of the LFE’s Life Skills programme. LFE has outlined seven aspects of well-being, for which life skills-based education is built upon including: emotional, financial, mental, occupational, physical, social and spiritual. The LFE will provide the academy with a certain number of delivery requests for the 2022/23 season based on these subjects. Academy workshops will range from a variety of different topics, including mental health, anti-bullying and social media safety. These will allow the players to further develop on and off the pitch, both as people and teammates.
Player After-Care Packs
Towards the end of the second year, a personalised player after-care pack will be created for each player. This pack will contain information specific to that player and will include reviews from coaches and tutors, football exit pathways, education exit pathways, support and alternatives. The pack is essentially a reflection on your time with us and will be used as guidance towards your next steps, either with the Club or elsewhere.
Players Committee
From the 2022/23 season, the apprentices from the Academy U18s will form the players committee (PC), to represent the players on Club matters. The Head of Player Care will meet a minimum of three times per season with the PC in order to aid two-way communication and review matters related to the desired conduct and behaviours of the academy players. The Head of Player Care will then feed back any relevant information to the academy staff. This two-way communication is vital for player and staff wellness. We operate an open-door policy encouraging all our academy players to communicate with staff whenever they feel the need to do so. During the two-year programme and beyond, we have had many players return seeking employment opportunities, placements, and advice/guidance after the two-year programme. In addition, a Parent Representative from each academy age group will be nominated to meet with the Head of Player Care during the season, again a minimum of three times. This will be to discuss any feedback, questions or concerns from all of the parents/carers within that Academy age group.
After Care
As an ex-academy player, you will also become a member of our player after-care programme. This begins with the individual player after-care packs previously mentioned, but here you will also be able to attend monthly workshops should you require help with items such as CV’s, university applications and job interviews. The programme lasts for one year after leaving the academy.
Alumni
In addition, you will also be entered into the Academy Alumni group with fellow teammates from your year. Here, we will post about topics such as placements, work opportunities, events and more. It will also be great to hear from you throughout your first-year post academy, as we will do a feature of it within our social channels.
