During your time on the hockey coaching programme in Melbourne you will be employed as a hockey coach. Most of the coaches who go to Melbourne work in secondary schools where they coach hockey to pupils each week for a school term or for the duration of a hockey season.
The coaches in Melbourne either coach hockey to junior pupils who are aged between 11 and 15 or senior pupils who are aged between 16 and 18. Most coaching sessions are undertaken between 2pm and 5pm Monday to Thursday and between 8am and 12pm on Saturday mornings. Initially, you should get between 5 and 10 hours of coaching work per week. It is then likely you will be assigned more hours once you have demonstrated your ability as a coach.
Upon arrival in Melbourne, your mentor will introduce you to your school or coaching institute where you will receive specific information as to your coaching hours, the age of the pupils you will be coaching and any other relevant information. We structure the dates of our coaching programmes to ensure that participants have the first week of their programme to get settled in Australia, become familiar with the public transport system and complete tasks such as opening a bank account and applying for a tax file number (see Australia Handbook for instructions). Coaching work usually commences in the second week of the programme. On our longer coaching programmes people usually coach in two school terms. If this is the case, there is likely to be a holiday of a few weeks midway through the programme between the end of the first term and the start of the new term.
Sport Lived undertakes a thorough screening process on all coaching applicants and we only select individuals who we believe are suitable to coach sport in Australia. This document highlights the fact we think you are suitable to coach sport in Australia and you will do a good job. Sport Lived cannot however guarantee that you will be employed as a coach at your assigned school. Your employment as a coach is subject to you meeting your assigned school where you might be asked to conduct a sample coaching session. Should you not be employed by your assigned school Sport Lived will contact other schools and coaching organisations and help to arrange coaching work for you in Melbourne.
Coaching Qualification
Sport Lived require all hockey coaches to obtain an England Hockey Introduction to Hockey Coaching qualification before the start of their programme.