The fifth edition of the International Instructor Course (IIC) was a success. The IIC is a qualification for people in key roles in the footballing world so that they can play an active role in management and organisation at national and club level, but also in collaboration with football teams, coaches, instructors and other groups. The content of the IIC is oriented towards the DFB coaching certificate and has been adapted to meet the needs of the international football family.
The fifth running of this course took place in close collaboration with FIFA, with the objective of providing targeted support for the work their Regional Technical Consultants (RTCs) do with its 211 member associations.
“A Training Program to Drive your Success”
The IIC is a five-day training programme which focuses on linking football-specific and interdisciplinary concepts and to optimise the methodical, social and media skills of the participants. The course, whose motto is “A Training Program to Drive your Success”, invites coaches, instructors and teachers from all levels of organised football to take part.
The IIC has already been run in conjunction with different football associations on four occasions since 2021, including Botswana/Namibia, Jordan, Mauritius/Tanzania/Zambia and the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). A “Female Edition” of this programme most recently took place in early 2023.
Patrick Wolf, head of International Relations at the DFB, said the following: “The IIC offers a helping hand to football associations worldwide as well as the expertise of DFB-qualifications to people from around the globe in key roles in football. In total, we’ve welcomed 100 instructors and coaches from 18 different national football associations since 2021. Teaming up with FIFA has demonstrated the quality of the course and the necessity to offer something like this to further support the structure of the sport.”
Teaching social, methodical and media skills
The fifth edition of the IIC, and the first in-person edition of the course, began on 9th September in Manchester, led by Sebastain Weinand and Dr. Carolin Braun. The course programme stretched over four further days via the DFB’s Blended Learning Online platform and encompassed four modules: Methods, Social, Media skills and the Roles of people in key functions.
13 FIFA RTCs took part in the fifth edition of the IIC. They are highly qualified football development experts who will be available to help national associations develop the sport in their respective regions. Sebastian Weinand, one of the course leaders, stressed the importance of these experts: “RTCs are the first point of contact in their confederations, and are looked up to as icons because of their former roles and technical directors and/or national team head coaches.”
Alongside the objective of optimising the four key modules, there was also a big focus on sustainable and constructive feedback being given. The importance and creation of a positive learning environment was also key to establish a culture in which feedback is appreciated and to get to grips with the digital tools.
“The content of the course teaches basic skills so that a group of instructors, coaches and RTCs can be effectively led, various methods can be used to keep people’s attention, the best-possible learning can be promoted, and a positive atmosphere can be created. These are important foundations of any successful team,” commented Dr. Carolin Braun, who performed a dual role as RTC for the European national associations as well as IIC course leader. The atmosphere is of paramount importance to her: “In every course, we can learn something from each other, and two-way communication is a key aspect. That’s important to us as course leaders. The group dynamic, mutual respect and mutual appreciation are all key pre-requisites for a successful course. It appears these factors were stand-out features of this edition of the course. We’ve huge respect for all the RTCs’ diverse areas of responsibility as well as their openness to share their experiences.”
Enthusiastic participants
Jürg Nepfer, head of technical services at FIFA and in charge of the RTC team, was also present for the fifth edition of the IIC and was thoroughly impressed: “The programme (in-person and online) was very practice-oriented and will provide a great support to the various tasks of FIFA’s 13 RTCs as well as their contact with the 211 member associations. Tasks such as varying the design of online meetings, the optimal use of new and old technological methods as well as the art of targeted feedback were parts of this very interesting discussion. Huge congratulations and thanks to the DFB and course leaders Dr. Carolin Braun and Sebastian Weinand for this initiative, which, thanks to their flexibility and adjustment of the original programme to our needs, fit perfectly to our team.”
Two of the course participants were asked for their feedback upon completion of the course. Aris Caslib (Philippines), who represents South-East Asian national associations, and Ousmane Savadogo (Burkina Faso), who works for the West and Central African national associations, had the following to say about the IIC: “The workshops and tasks were in a logical order and well aligned, and they helped us to recognise learning trends in the post-COVID era. We enjoyed numerous aspects of the workshops, including communication methods, knowledge processing, visual tools and media skills. We found the social skills like leadership and dealing with different behavioural patterns particularly useful. On the whole, we were able to better conceptualise and master these methods whilst learning new and interesting methods at the same time, which we can now use when necessary. Overall, the atmosphere was really positive, and it was great to be able to learn together as a team. It was an excellent continuous professional development programme which was catered to our exact needs and will help us to carry out our roles better and to better serve our associations. A huge thanks to the team, which consisted of Eva Jacobi (DFB), Sebastian Weinand (IIC leader) and Carolin Braun (IIC leader)!”