Canoe Wales is the national governing body for paddle sport in Wales. We:

  • Manage the National White Water Centre which is located on the river Tryweryn in Bala, North Wales
  • Represent the interests of our club and individual members
  • Advocate on behalf of the interests of the sport in Wales
  • Provide coaching and development programmes from local to international level
  • Stage national and international competitions.

Becoming a Coach Educator

The term Coach Educator refers to any coach who is able to provide training or assessment courses for BCU coaching qualifications. There are two levels of coach educator, referred to as Director and Tutor. Directors are the lead staff for the coaching qualification course, while tutors are second staff who must work under a course director. Occasionally, people will refer to all coach educators as tutors, but this is something we will avoid on this page for the sake of clarity.

Whether coaches can train to become Coach Educators is controlled centrally by the BCU, who are no longer accepting applications. However, Canoe Wales are able help people meeting certain criteria through the process, please read the full explanation below.

What has happened so far

The BCU took applications from coaches wishing to provide coach education in the new system over two years ago. Initially those deemed best experienced and qualified to be lead staff on the new courses were identified, usually this was coaches with multi-discipline assessor experience (e.g. multi discipline A4s and higher). These people were contacted and offered Temporary Director status on completion of an orientation course. This is referred to as "phase one".

The information sent by all other coaches has been audited and assessed by the BCU in the next phase, "phase two". One audited, those eligible for phase two were sent a letter telling them to await a Tutor Training course running in their Home Nation. Tutor Training is a two-day course (old A4s are eligible to attend a one-day version). In order to then provide a specific coaching course (e.g. Level 1), the newly trained tutor must either attend a one-day Level 1 orientation course or observe a Level 1 course running in its entirety. Once orientation is complete, the tutor is qualified as a (e.g. Level 1) Temporary Tutor. As a temporary tutor, you must work on a course within 12 months or your status can be revoked but you can remain a temporary tutor for as long as you like, or you can progress towards being a director as explained below.

Coaches who applied and were deemed not eligible

If you have gained further training, experience or qualifications since you sent your application to the BCU (or you feel you omitted some information which may help your application); you can send additional information to Rachel.derry@canoe-england.org.uk and request that your application be re-reviewed. The best advice is to give them as much information as possible. They look for specific information per discipline for your Tutoring, Coaching and Paddling Experience. For coaching they need to know the variety of groups you've coached (young, old, girls, boys, schools, scouts etc), then for each group the type of coaching (e.g. one-off, short term, progressive such as 6 week blocks, long term) and this is needed for each discipline you coach. They also need to know the rivers/lakes/coastlines/surf you have paddled on a personal level, including grade, locations, conditions etc - again for each discipline.

Coaches who did not hold the pre-requisites to apply at the time

If you did not hold the relevant pre-requisites to apply during phase two applications but do now, you can potentially still apply if there is a need for coach education tutors in your area. Find see the Coach Educator job description outlined by the BCU. If this applies to you, please contact the Coach Education Co-ordinator, giving a brief overview of your quals, paddling background, where you coach and how you becoming a coach educator would benefit your area, club or centre. If you are an appropriate candidate, we will send you the Coach Educator Application to complete and return. We will then send it on to the BCU with an accompanying Home Nation request for it to be audited.

Progressing from a Tutor to a Director

UKCC courses usually run with a Director and a Tutor working on them (a course must have at least one Director working on it). At present, only coaches who went through the BCU audit as eligible for phase one are Temporary Directors but it is possible to progress from a Temporary Tutor to a Director as follows:
  • Complete the Coach Education Portfolio (you should be given this at Tutor Training, if you didn’t receive it or have lost it, please contact us and we will send you a new one)
  • Submit the completed portfolio to the National Development Officer
  • If satisfactory, you will then become a Permanent Tutor
  • A permanent tutor can apply to be QA’ed by Canoe Wales delivering a course.
  • If satisfactory, you will then become a Temporary Director.
Progressing from Temp Director to Permanent Director involves completing another portfolio, but the benefits of being a Permanent Director are not yet clear.

Minimum delivery requirement

All those who went through phase one as Temporary Directors should now have delivered at least one BCU UKCC Level 1 or BCU UKCC Level 2 course. If you have not done so, you will soon receive a letter to inform you that you have been reduced to a Temporary Tutor. If you have an adequate reason for not yet delivering and plan to deliver a course by the end of February 2010, please contact the Coach Education Co-ordinator or the National Development Officer to request an extention to your Temp Director status.

Temporary Tutors must work on at least one course within 12 months of their orientation course. This information will be taken from the course schedule, so please ensure that you are named as a deliverer on it. You will be sent a reminder letter prior to your status being removed, then a letter to inform you that due to your lack of delivery, your orientation has now become invalid. If you wish to become a Temp Tutor in the future, you must attend another orientation course.