Held between 2 and 6 May at the Vanuatu Football Federation’s Teouma Academy, the course was attended by 18 female and six male coaches working with women’s teams.
The list of the participants included national team players as well as the assistant coaches of the Vanuatu U-20 and U-17 women’s teams.
OFC Women’s Football Development Officer Nicola Demaine says the programme was designed with the goal of developing coaches who will be able to plan, deliver and evaluate age appropriate training sessions.
“The objective was to help coaches understand what their players in the 13 to 16 age group needed to learn.
“The ultimate aim is that by the time the girls make the U-17 team they already have a good understanding of the game.”
Demaine says the participants were introduced to both theoretical and practical techniques and tactics outlined by the OFC D-Licence content.
“The coaches left the course with a greater knowledge of the game and a small number of tools to help them teach this knowledge to their players.
“They are now eligible for an OFC D-Licence certificate and that will hopefully give them extra confidence to carry on with their coaching education,” she said.
“I want to say the course was a success but I think we can only measure the success in years to come if these new coaches have gone out to the field and worked well.”
Demaine also believes that the FIFA coaching course came at a perfect time to complement the introduction of a new U-17 women’s competition by the Vanuatu Football Federation.
“With the new programmes supported by FIFA more girls will start playing competitive football later this month, coached by a group of committed and hardworking coaches,” she said.

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