“The idea is to take a generic skill such as leadership and apply it to practical examples that a footyWILD Centre Manager or Coach would have to deal with in their normal routine, making it more relevant for the volunteer” said Nicolene Murdoch Monash University spokeswoman .

AFL South Africa has recently joined forces with Monash University South Africa in Johannesburg to launch an innovative Education pilot that will provide University accredited training for 60 footyWILD volunteers in the Gauteng Province.

The broad-based ‘Basic Management and Development Course’ will cover generic skill sets but with practical application to the daily life of a footyWILD volunteer.

Modules being trialled at Monash’s Ruimsig campus 25kms north-west of the Johannesburg CBD over the next 8 weeks, will include Leadership, Communication, Diversity, Team membership, Marketing, Basic Project management, Budgeting & Finance and Computer Skills.

“The idea is to take a generic skill such as leadership and apply it to practical examples that a footyWILD Centre Manager or Coach would have to deal with in their normal routine, making it more relevant for the volunteer” said Monash University spokeswoman Nicolene Murdoch.

This broad-based educational approach will supplement the ‘sport specific’ training AFLSA currently provides to its footyWILD volunteers nationally in the core areas of AFL coaching, umpiring and basic sports administration. This is one of several pilots being conducted under the footyWILD PRIDE Community Development banner which seeks to address key social issues such as Health, Employment, Education amongst others.

Allison Simons, National Manager of footyWILD PRIDE, said that the Education pilot clearly covers two of those areas with the Monash training intended to provide a viable ‘pathway to employment’ for the organisation’s volunteers wherever they choose to take their lives, “The key measure of AFLSA’s success will not lie in the number of volunteers that AFLSA retains, but in how many volunteers successfully gain employment or actively pursue higher education as a result of the Monash training we can facilitate,’ said Simons.

Based on a successful Gauteng pilot in 2009, AFLSA intends to roll-out the Education program to all 30 footyWILD centres nationally, creating a viable ‘pathway to employment’ for 330 volunteers from all four Provinces.