How the FA and the Learning Pool Developed Grassroots Football

FA and the Learning Pool: A Grassroots Revolution

Operating throughout England, the FA is responsible for the promotion and development of all levels of the game, from grassroots to professional. It hosts the most successful international teams, competitions such as the Emirates FA Cup and the Barclays Women’s Super League, as well as the world-class venues of Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park. Despite its global recognition in these arenas, the FA remains rooted in local communities, distributing £120m (c. $156m) annually to English football.

At the core of its work are County FAs—a national network that receives core funding from the FA to promote football at local level across England. The FA sets and leads a Grassroots Football Strategy to develop the sport across England, and County FAs deliver this strategy, along with other strategic objectives tailored to local needs.

Soggy Pitches: A Barrier to the Development of Young Soccer Players

How do you inspire and provide for the next generation of footballers when their pitches are low? Waterlogged stadiums in the fall and winter months and dusty turf fields in the summer lead to the cancellation or postponement of 40,000 games each year. With two out of three FA county stadiums across the country rated as “poor”, and 14.1 million grassroots players depending on them, it was time to act.

A Revolution in Grassroots Investment

The FA’s 2020–2024 strategy, “Time for Change,” aims to bring together all aspects of the game and sets out six transformational goals. A key goal was to create 5000 high-quality grass pitches across England by 2024, tackling the game’s huge problem of substandard pitches. This requires a large increase in staff.

Recognizing this challenge, the FA divided the central funding received from the government and partners to finance the expansion of the team from 30 to 53 FTEs.

The Need for Learning

The rapid expansion of the workforce requires a significant increase in training to ensure that new officers can quickly learn a complex, evolving knowledge base. The Resource Team identified the need for a digital learning program as a timely resource for these officers. However, existing training materials need to be scaled up to a larger group. Recognizing this, the FA partnered with Learning Pool to deliver a revolutionary project to improve learning through the influx of new starters.

Commitment to Rapid and Flexible Learning

Achieving its goals without increasing training costs required strategic thinking. Therefore, the FA and Learning Pool, chose to use the FA’s existing eLearning platform, Training Ground, to host training material, creating a new, dedicated F&I “playlist”.

These bite-sized modules are designed to provide comprehensive training and support to new and existing F&I managers, who often work independently within their own County FA premises. Modules are aligned to key executive objectives and include topics such as addressing institutional issues, building relationships with local stakeholders, and developing club resource projects.

Key Principles of an L&D Program

The major strategic objectives of the L&D program were:

1. Transform grassroots football facilities by delivering 5000 high quality grass pitches by 2024.
2. Increase participation rates to 14% for girls, 7% for women, and 7% for players with disabilities by improving facility accessibility.
3. Support future growth and sustainability, with plans to extend quality targets into the strategic future.

Additional and related objectives that align with the County FA’s key priorities include:

1. Increase speed and efficiency, with the aim of having all employees fully trained within 6 months.
2. Develop County FA staff knowledge and skills.
3. Maximize ability to meet F&I KPIs.
4. Improve resource allocation.

Behind the Net: Achieving the Above Objectives

With the help of Football Facilities and Investment Advisor Caroline Smith, the new Training Ground content was written and developed in-house, using Learning Pool’s Adapt tool—their easy-to-use authoring platform that enables users to create responsive and engaging online courses. Prior to release, a dedicated working group consisting of six experienced Resource Directors periodically provided valuable insights to shape the content to meet the specific needs of new employees.

Innovative Digital Learning

The team created an engaging and user-friendly playlist for F&I by creating targeted content in short, bite-sized modules that take about 5–10 minutes to complete. They incorporate a variety of assessment methods, including situational assessments and quizzes, tracking learning outcomes and reinforcing key concepts.

To accommodate different learning styles, the Training Platform used visual and interactive resources, such as clear signage in main documents, detailed lessons, embedded links, email templates, study materials, FAQs, video content, and visual references such as maps and images. These accessories are designed for easy use in everyday activities.

The first batch of content was launched on the same day as the FA’s annual F&I conference, with further courses released in February 2024 and the final installment to be launched in September 2024.

Impact

In March 2024, the Training Academy conducted a listening exercise with the installation of the Boost project. The aim was to assess students’ thoughts on the course, its impact on their skills and knowledge, and its practical application. The results have been surprisingly positive. When asked about the likelihood of recommending F&I courses to peers, respondents indicated strong approval with a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +61.54. Worse, the study also proved that F&I employees use what they learn on a daily basis, scoring a frequency of 6.96/10 (10 being “every day”).

This positive feeling was further confirmed by the verbal response:

“Really useful content for new starters. A valuable opportunity to learn the context of F&I before starting to work with key partners.”

“Diversity of subjects helps to expand the skills.”

“Access is easy and the structure is good, it’s very easy to read for free and digitally.”

Mission accomplished

The implementation of the new training content has brought significant benefits to the FA and achieved all the goals set:

1. Lower F&I training costs have resulted in significant savings, improved resources, and reduced travel and carbon emissions.
2. The target of 5000 quality sites was exceeded and now sits at 5600, making FA progress towards its long-term expansion goals.
3. The development of institutions has already led to an increase in female and disabled players, which increased between 7% and 14% and 7% respectively.
4. To support future expansion and sustainability through the successful development of the Training Ground, setting the stage for further development in line with the FA’s long-term goals.