Millwall Community Trust’s (MCT) Alternative Provision (AP) Academy Programme has received positive reviews from students from Conisborough College on the Millwall AP Academy Elite programme
The Millwall AP Academy Programme is a part-time alternative education provision delivered by MCT. It acts as a precursor to the post-16 football academy programme.
The AP Academy provides 14–16-year-old students opportunities to study towards NCFE Health & Fitness and YMCA Gym instructor L1 and 2 qualification, Employability, and industry-specific qualification while partaking in practical, sport-related activities and learning.
As part of their school work students choose to write about their experience on the programme, and how the programme has helped them develop over the past 2 years, they said:
“At Millwall, we do more than just play football. We take part in various activities that will benefit us in the future. For example, how to manage money. Every Wednesday we go to the Lion Centre to train and better ourselves.
“We start off the day at 9:00 am when we take part in a morning activation that prepares us for the day. This can range from yoga to a full-body workout, or workouts that focus on developing our core strength. I really enjoy this part of the day because mentally and physically it gets us ready for Millwall, I have seen tremendous improvement in my physical abilities, for example, my stamina and my muscular endurance. One thing I love about Millwall is that they treat us like professional football players. This prepares us for the harsh reality of becoming a footballer – it is a lot more than just playing football!
“After our morning session, we learn about things that will benefit us in the future such as health and fitness, employability, and money management. These subjects help us get a better understanding of life after secondary school. Other people who don’t take part in Millwall may think that all we do Is play football all day, but the Millwall academy is way more than that. Next, we do a training session about the technical gameplay involved in football. This helps us understand specific examples of game-based strategies and how to play these out in a real game.
“We also got a first aid level one qualification from Millwall, which means that we know how to resuscitate someone who isn’t breathing and how to help someone who is choking. We had to perform CPR on dummies for the assessment before we could get the qualification. I really liked doing this course because it gave us the skills and confidence to apply this in real-life situations.
“What I really like about Millwall is they check on our mental wellbeing each week. It is equally important to keep yourself mentally healthy as well as physically healthy, and Millwall has done a lot of work with us on this. If we write down that we are feeling lower than usual, then someone will pull us out for a chat to help us process our feelings and overcome them to have a more positive outlook.
“I am really thankful to have had the opportunity to take part in the Millwall programme. The teachers there have been fantastic at helping us develop both physically and mentally. We have had the chance to learn skills that we wouldn’t usually have learned at school. I know that I speak for everyone when I say thank you to Hassan, Joey, John, Daniella, Chan, and all the others.”
Written by Millwall Conisborough Elite academy Students Mia, Elamin, Farokh, and Ryan
The Millwall AP Academy programme aims to help re-engage students in learning while developing the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary for employment in the sports industry sector.
MCT’s experienced coaches, tutors, and mentors provide students with support and real-life experiences working within the sports sector.
The programme is carefully curated so that, as well as teaching employability skills, it helps the students understand self-reflection and progression and how they can use it to overcome physical and mental barriers. The programme does this through confidential fitness and wellbeing questionnaires, where students can share how their day has been and talk about it with a trained MCT coach. They also have end-of-the-day debriefs where they share positive affirmations about what they did well and what qualities they saw in other students.
John Scarborough Education & Employability Manager said “The Elite programme is now in its 2nd year and the students deserve enormous credit for the way they have applied themselves both in a football context but also meeting our educational and team ethos expectations. These students have also shown 100% commitment training and working at home during all 3 lockdowns via online bespoke Millwall Academy platforms created in partnership with Conisborough College. We have also seen 2 girls on the programme signed up to the Millwall Lionesses Academy with one already making her first team debut as result of progress made on the programme. Equally several others are already signed up to several post 16 football Academy programmes”
For more information about the AP Programme, please contact John Scarborough on jscarborough@millwallcommunity.org.uk
