IPC Athletics to unroll 22 education courses

The aim is to improve the quality and quantity of experienced people who can provide support to athletes and at competitions, ultimately ensuring the development of athletics at a national and regional level.

A series of 22 courses are to be rolled out at a number of IPC Athletics Grand Prix events during 2014, with the aim of improving the standards of technical officials, coaches and classifiers and cementing the future of the sport.

The first four will be held in February at the 6th Fazaa International Athletics Competition in Dubai, UAE, the first IPC Athletics Grand Prix of the year.

This includes IPC Athletics Educator Training which is supported by the National Paralympic Committee of UAE and the Agitos Foundation’s Grant Support Programme, launched earlier this year.

These will increase educational opportunities in regions, particularly in the Americas, Asia and Africa. They will also increase opportunities for classification, coaching and officiating, as well equipping volunteers with more skills.

A number of the other workshops are being organised in conjunction with the Agitos Foundation and Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games, which are providing a pioneering outreach programme to share knowledge and expertise across Local Organising Committees ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

All sessions will take place at IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, China; Arizona, USA; Nottwil, Switzerland; Grosseto, Italy; Tunis, Tunisia and Berlin, Germany.

An additional two courses will take place in January and August, outside of the IPC Athletics Grand Prix events.

These include a Chief Classifier Workshop in January in Germany and a national classification and coaching course in Jamaica in August.

IPC Athletics is also developing online resources for classification, with additional modules for technical officiating, in association with the IPC Academy.

IPC Athletics is working closely with the Agitos Foundation, NPCs and Local Organising Committees to raise the number of educational opportunities available to coaches and officials.

The aim is to improve the quality and quantity of experienced people who can provide support to athletes and at competitions, ultimately ensuring the development of athletics at a national and regional level.

The following courses will be on offer:

• IPC Athletics Educator training

• International Technical Officials course

• National Technical Officials course

• International classification course

• National classification course

• National coaching course

IPC Athletics recently announced a total of nine Grand Prix for 2014, which follows on from the successful 2013 edition where seven events attracted over 1,000 athletes.

The Agitos Foundation is the development arm of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Grant Support Programme has given more than EUR 630,000 to IFs, NPCs and IOSDs and to develop para-sport.