UKAD and Safeguarding course summary

Recently, I have completed two courses that will help me professionally in future and when currently coaching youth Weightlifters. In this blog post, I thought I would explain the benefits of the courses, summarize what the courses are about and how you can take these courses. These courses are particularly useful for anyone wanting to work with children or are involved in coaching any sport. Please carry on reading if you are interested.

UKAD Accredited advisor course

I took this course online on the 28th of February and passed with 92%. This certificate lasts for 2 years and then requires renewal. This course is to essentially say that you as a coach or athlete will report any instances involving doping, will promote anti-doping and that you will advise athletes that they check the supplements and medication they take prior to competing. You can find the course online for free at the link I have provided. This course is affiliated with 1st4sport and it took myself approximately 6 hours over a period of 3 days to complete.

This course highlighted over the ways you should report any signs of doping, the history of doping, how many months/ years/ permanent exclusion from the sport that athletes can gain, what coaches can be reported for, a coaches role and what TUE's and ADRV's are and much more useful guidance surrounding anti-doping. This course gave me the knowledge on how to report and guide athletes under my supervision about anti-doping. The benefits of this course would be that you are professionally developed, support anti-doping and that your athletes will experience fair competition environments.

UKAD course

Child Protection course

I took this course on the 22nd of March at my local youth centre (where I coach) which was hosting the course. Again, this certificate lasts for 2 years before renewal. Since this course was ran by a member of the county council, I am unsure if the course costed anything. This course is to essentially address how you can protect and safeguard children and young people. The NSPCC are running courses that will be similar on their website, they are currently around £30. My course took 3 hours to complete, the ones upon the NSPCC website are said to take 3 hours also.

This course featured information involving spotting signs of abuse, the different types of abuse and how to handle situations involving incidents and abuse (social services). This course allowed for free-thought regarding what is classed as abuse (E.g. the predicament of whether smacking your child is physical abuse). The course covered aspects from physical, psychological and sexual abuse, which was eye-opening and did contain sensitive topics (E.g. Female Genital Mutilation). This course gave me the knowledge on how I would report and deal with any concerns regarding witnessed or suspected abuse. The benefits of this course is that you are professionally developed and you know that any athletes or young people you are working with are able to be completely protected at uttermost best when under your care.

NSPCC Course

Thank you for reading this blog post, I didn't want to make it very long as taking the courses will  provide the most knowledge and I would hate for this post to be used instead of someone taking the appropriate course required.