Curriculum Information

The main aims of the course are: 

• Aim 1: Develop reflective, adaptable, and creative football coaches who can apply fundamental and advanced football coaching principles to inspire players through inclusive, person-centred practice. 

• Aim 2: Cultivate an evidence-informed approach to recognising and developing talent, applying analytical and developmental frameworks to create effective and sustainable player pathways. 

• Aim 3: Enhance understanding of performance support services and their integration within football environments, enabling students to apply insights from performance services including, but not limited to, physical preparation, analysis and psychology to provide evidence informed optimisation of individual and team performance. 

• Aim 4: Develop inclusive, ethical, and forward-thinking coaching leaders who can critically evaluate practice, influence organisational culture, and lead positive change within football and sport. 

• Aim 5: Prepare socially responsible, industry-ready professionals who can innovate, collaborate, and contribute to sustainable development and community wellbeing through football, embodying the values of the USW 2030 Strategy supported by USW’s Graduate Attributes. 

The design of this programme is grounded in Biggs’ (1999) model of constructive alignment, ensuring that learning outcomes, teaching activity, and assessment tasks are intentionally and coherently aligned throughout the curriculum. Each 30-credit block begins with clearly defined module learning outcomes that articulate the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for contemporary football performance environments. Teaching and learning activities are then designed to create the conditions for students to actively construct this learning through authentic, applied, and challenge-based tasks, drawing on principles of problem-based learning, experiential learning (Kolb, 1984), and social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978). Assessments are integrative and authentic, requiring learners to demonstrate outcome mastery through real-world artefacts such as performance reports, player recruitment profiles, leadership interventions, or high-performance culture briefings. This alignment ensures that students are not taught content in isolation, but instead engage in a purposeful learning cycle where weekly activities, formative checkpoints, and summative tasks are all working toward the same academic and professional outcomes. The course further embeds principles of self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000), scaffolding student autonomy across Levels 4–6, and utilises transparent assessment criteria, reflective practice, and industry-informed challenges to ensure learning is meaningful, applied, and aligned to the expectations of the football sector. 

1.Industry and Science Supported Learning: Authenticity and industry alignment are central to the design of modules and assessments. Students engage with real-world tasks and scenarios drawn from football coaching and performance environments including academy, community, and elite contexts. Through direct collaboration with industry partners and the integration of contemporary sports science principles, students develop subject expertise, professional behaviours, leadership qualities, and reflective practice ability. This holistic development encompassing both technical and personal attributes ensures that graduates are ready to compete effectively within the football and wider sport industries. 

2.Active Learning: Challenge Based Curriculum: The B.Sc. Football Coaching and Performance course adopts a Challenge-Based Curriculum (CBC) underpinned by the USW 2030 Curriculum Design Principles and the Enabling Active Learning (EAL) policy. This ensures teaching is authentic, engaging, and hands-on, with students tackling industry challenges that require creativity, teamwork, and critical thinking. Practical coaching, analysis, and applied support service tasks are delivered through immersive, experiential learning opportunities that connect theory directly to practice and promote problem-solving within realistic football environments. 

To operationalises Challenge-Based Curriculum (CBC) the programme embeds one signature Grand Challenge per academic level, delivered explicitly within the Leadership module at each stage as the summative demonstration of student learning, integration, and impact. These leadership challenges operationalise the University’s Health and Wellbeing Accelerator, applying its priorities of wellbeing, resilience, inclusion, inequality reduction, and sustainable community impact through the authentic context of football environments. 

Each challenge is purposefully aligned to the module assessment objectives, serving as both the curriculum spine and the assessment evidence through which students demonstrate leadership, decision-making, communication, and real-world impact. The developmental arc of these challenges advances from leading self in community environments (L4), to leading systems and people in club development pathways (L5), to leading culture and high-performance strategy at senior level (L6).  

Curriculum Challenges at each level: 

Level 4: Challenge: Community Football Wellbeing Leadership Intervention 

Leadership purpose: Developing self-leadership, ethical decision-making, stakeholder awareness, and first-technologies of influence through coaching environments. 

Assessment alignment: 
The existing assessment (Professional Development Profile) becomes evidence of leading and evaluating a community wellbeing coaching intervention. 

For this challenge, the students will: 

• Lead the design and delivery of a football session that intentionally develops psychological, social, and physical wellbeing 

• Capture player/participant impact through feedback, observation, and reflection 

• Critically evaluate their own leadership behaviours, communication approach, and ethical decision-making 

• Produce a Professional Development Profile outlining personal leadership growth, wellbeing outcomes, and community relevance 

Demonstrates: self-leadership, ethical practice, wellbeing advocacy, communication, reflective leadership, community influence.  

Level 5: Challenge: Player Development and Wellbeing System Leadership Design 

Leadership purpose: Transition from leading self to leading systems, people, and organisational processes that protect wellbeing and sustain player development. 

Assessment alignment: 
The existing assessment (Leadership Audit) becomes evidence of designing a club or academy system that operationalises development and wellbeing. 

For this challenge, the students will: 

• Audit a real or simulated football environment to identify wellbeing and development system gaps 

• Design an organisational solution including MDT workflows, safeguarding points, communication channels, monitoring practices, and development triggers 

• Demonstrate leadership in translating insight into operational process 

• Present a Leadership and Systems Improvement Report showing how their solution influences people, culture, retention, and wellbeing 

Demonstrates: systems leadership, organisational communication, cross-disciplinary collaboration, process design, ethical leadership.  

Level 6: Grand Challenge: High-Performance Wellbeing and Performance Strategy  

Leadership purpose: Leading culture, performance, and wellbeing strategy in environments where pressure, identity, cohesion, and performance risk converge. 

Assessment alignment: 
The existing assessment (Executive Briefing Paper - Boardroom Simulation) becomes the vehicle for presenting a wellbeing-driven high-performance strategy. 

For this challenge, the students will: 

• Critically analyse performance, wellbeing, culture, cohesion, and organisational risk in a team environment 

• Construct a high-performance strategy that aligns competitive success with psychological, physical, and social wellbeing 

• Include strategic priorities, leadership behaviours, culture interventions, success metrics, and impact forecasting 

• Present and defend recommendations through a board-level executive briefing simulation 

Demonstrates: strategic leadership, cultural influence, evidence-based decision-making, executive communication, risk-aware leadership. 

2.1 Welsh Language Delivery: 

In line with the Academic Blueprint, the course supports the development and use of the Welsh language. While teaching is delivered through the medium of English, students are encouraged to use Welsh in informal learning spaces, group work and reflective tasks where appropriate. The option to submit assessments in Welsh must abide by our institutional policy, and core course information will signpost bilingual support, key terminology, and links to USW Welsh language services as these are developed and further embedded in the CBC delivery framework. Staff will promote respectful use of Welsh in our learning environment and ensure students who wish to use Welsh are fully supported. 

2.2 Inclusivity, Accessibility and Reasonable Adjustments: 

Teaching, learning and assessment on this course are designed in line with USW’s Accessibility, Reasonable Adjustment and Inclusive Education policies. This includes proactively anticipating diverse learner needs, offering multiple modes of engagement, and ensuring that learning materials, assessment formats, and digital platforms meet accessibility standards (via our digital functionality: Blackboard Ally and associated tools). Students who require reasonable adjustments are supported through early identification, coordinated planning with central services, and flexible approaches to assessment without compromising academic integrity. This inclusive design ensures that all learners can participate fully, develop confidence, and demonstrate their abilities within an equitable, supportive learning environment (https://www.southwales.ac.uk/current-students/disability-advice-team/reasonable-adjustments/). 

3.Authentic Assessment: Assessments are designed to mirror professional football environments, encouraging students to demonstrate their learning through job-related and evidence-informed outputs. Tasks such as performance reviews, development plans, and digital portfolios enable students to showcase their applied knowledge, reflective ability, and communication skills. This approach ensures assessment is meaningful, relevant, and directly transferable to employment settings, reinforcing the programme’s commitment to authentic and industry-facing education. Each module has one assessment point at the end of the teaching block (apart from the coaching module which has two, as there must be a separate practical and theoretical/espoused knowledge element). This aims to release the pressure of a mid-block assessment point, especially when students are still getting accustomed to facilities, teaching, learning and staff. To support this, there is an immersive, progressive curriculum development where each delivery week, students complete tasks relevant to the assessment submission. In this way, by the end of each block, near the assessment point, the students will have the tasks completed, and most of the assessment finalised. For each block, there will be a formative assessment mid-block, ensuring that the students are on track with their assessment completion. This ensures that students have started the assessment, can get feedback on the clarity and work done so far, to ensure that they are along the appropriate lines, and get insight on how to develop. This ensures that the one point of assessment for each block is managed effectively and doesn't put pressure on the students. This programme complies with USW 30-credit block design, 56 contact hours per block, assessment volume equivalence per the USW Assessment Tariff (v4.1), and no more than 2 assessment points per module. 

4.Progressive Learner Development: Scaffolding and Support: Scaffolded opportunities for reflection, peer collaboration, and feedback are embedded throughout the course. These allow students to build confidence, deepen their understanding, and refine their professional practice in a supportive, inclusive learning environment. Guided reflection, tutor mentorship, and formative feedback nurture learner autonomy, encourage self-regulation, and foster equitable participation for all students, regardless of background or prior experience. 

5.Transition into Industry and Developing a Professional Identity: Students are encouraged to become active contributors to the evolution of football coaching and performance practice. Through the co-creation of knowledge, engagement with professional networks, and participation in live industry projects, students cultivate their professional identity and feedback literacy. Technology and innovation play a pivotal role in this process, from using analysis and coaching software and digital learning platforms to producing authentic, industry-aligned outputs that showcase their readiness for employment. By the end of the course, graduates emerge as confident, reflective, and forward-thinking professionals prepared to shape the future of football and sport.