Dreamstore Update

September 20, 2009 in All Articles, Scotland by editor

The 2009 Dreamstore Academy has taken place in Blairgowrie High School.  Blairgowrie is the centre of Angling For Youth Development (AFYD), and many of the participants were gaining a coaching qualification to help in their local AFYD groups already in existence, or on the planning board for later in the year. AFYD participants included a number for Paisley and Renfrew which is developing rapidly. In 2009 AFYD hopes to engage around 500 young people in its projects and courses, and it is expecting to be able to double this number in 2010.

Also attending Blairgowrie were coaches for the Scottish Anglers National Association international youth and ladies teams.  Once again sea, coarse and game anglers worked together to help build angling’s engagement with young people and new anglers, with our tutor/assessor team including SFSA, SANA and BDAA members. This Dreamstore Academy course produced a further twenty people with SQA accredited coaching qualifications at Level 2 standards, to SQA mapped UKCC outcomes.

September 20, 2008 in All Articles, Dreamstore Academy, Scotland by editor

Our second Academy was facilitated by the Scottish Anglers National Association (SANA) and held at the Sports Scotland National Centre, Inverclyde, near Largs.  While the first Academy had been predominately fly anglers, this second had a majority of sea anglers including the coaches for the International Youth Team and the Chairman of the Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers (SFSA), Mike Horn (pictured below having a coarse angling coaching session).

One of the benefits of the Dreamstore Academy approach is the way in which different angling disciplines learn from each other and offer each other support.  In addition to SANA booking Largs and the tutor team including an SFSA Dreamstore Academy trained tutor, others on the coaching team included tutor/assessors from the British Disabled Angling Association (BDAA). 

One of the most satisfying aspects of the development of the Dreamstore Academy course in Scotland an example of what can be achieved when angling works together for the benefit of everyone.

November 20, 2007 in All Articles, Dreamstore Academy, Scotland by editor

Our first coaching Academy in Scotland has been a huge success, with around twenty participants gaining their Dreamstore Academy Level 2 Coaching Certificate with the SQA accredited course units.  A number of others have a number of tasks to complete over the next few months and we look forward to them completing the course early in 2008.

There were 25 participants on this first course, held over three weekends at Heriot Watt University, Dumbartonshire and at the National Angling Centre, Loch Leven.  The way in which the course has been developed means that participants included game, coarse and sea anglers.

Many of the participants are volunteers who were placed on the course by AFYD (Action For Youth Development), a voluntary body that works with young people to introduce them to angling and provide personal development through engagement in fishing activities and education courses. Dreamstore Academy is pleased to be able to support AFYD’s development by providing its volunteers with the coaching skills for working with people of all ages, especially young people.

We have learned a lot in delivering this course and will be applying new ideas and improvements to the course before our next course which is planned for early summer 2008.