Working with Tottenham Football Club Foundation and Academy staff we played a lead role on behalf of the Premier League and British Council China as a part of the people to people dialogue practical event element. This celebratory event formed part of the 3rd UK-China High Level People-to-People dialogue. 

It is a key sports event supported by the Department of Culture Media and Sports and China's State General Administration of Sports and Ministry of Education. With a high level of organisational responsibility from the British Council, State General Administration and the Federation of University Sports China. Whilst being jointly supported by the key footballing bodies of the Premier League and The Football Association. 

From a delivery perspective our role focused on working in partnership with Tottenham Football Club in the build up to the event to look after and manage a number of activities with Chinese players and delegates, that would lead onto forming part of the practical showcase on the event day forum itself. As the targeted theme of the forum was 'From Grassroots to Professional - Building a Football nation' it allowed us a great opportunity to discuss and showcase the UK success in supporting this pathway through Tottenham Football Club's inspirational first and academy team training complex. 

A number of objectives were achieved through this on and off pitch dialogue as officials, industry leaders and key representatives from professional clubs of both countries shared and discussed their own experiences, ambitions and plans for football development, whilst exploring areas to develop collaboration in the future. 

Over the last year we have been working with Clubfootball an organisation in China to develop staff through the coach development to coach education pathway via Premier Skills, in order to help support the continued growth and development whilst helping to build capacity in country to further cascade Premier Skills courses. 

Through this modular approach we have designed the curriculum for the face to face training, provide on the job training, mentoring whilst assessment and feedback. To date we a have a number of Clubfootball staff currently delivering on certain Premier Skills programmes in China and working with their team we have delivered well over 8 courses during this period. 

A key to any to any train the trainer process is to ensure the delivery team are fit for purposes and currently this collaboration between us the Premier League and the British Council continues to evolve within this area which is mutually beneficial for Clubfootball staff development as an organisation and China Premier Skills future roll out. 

Premier Skills Coach Educators Kaka, Festus and Mwajirani over the last few months have been out in Kenya visiting both DFID project delivery sites in Kisumu and Mount Elgon implementing site quality assurance checks so that programme planning, delivery and on going reviews remain to a high standard with consistent delivery approaches occurring both on the pitch and off the pitch during the Violence Against Women and Girls workshop delivery.  

All three of these individuals have gone through a great learning journey via Premier Skills since they started back in 2009 and we have been fortunate enough to have shaped and supported this development and delivery on many occasions along the way. Since their newly acquired up-skilling process around quality control with us and other consultant partners, all have been developing well within this new found role. With clear benefits already starting to be seen and appreciated by both the Premier Skills Inclusion Coaches themselves and most importantly the participants involved in the weekly programme.

Through our collaborative partnership with Sports Structures we have been planning, delivering and assessing 1st4Sports QCF Level 2 Award in Multi-Skills Development in Sport with Berks and Bucks New University. This course was aimed at us to be working with degree level students from year 1-3 who were undertaking a range of sports specific degrees. 

We cannot underestimate the importance of gaining practical hands of sports coaching qualifications as a part of any theoretical degree learning process and this course was a fantastic opportunity for these students to accomplish this objective. With this experience learners gained an understanding of how to support child development through multi-skills, how to develop physical literacy movement skills and the development of fundamental sports skills through multi-skills. 

For all the male and female learners involved it was a great opportunity for further professional coach/ teacher development and having attained the qualification the students can go on to use them as recognition of prior learning. 

Without question one of ISC proudest moments to date was being asked to support the occasion of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge's visit to China, as a part of the British Councils organised Premier Skills showcase event at Nanyang High School in Shanghai. 

ISC director Paul Hughes who is a Head Coach on Premier Skills and former coach within a Premier League club. Took responsibility initially to lead a group of PE teachers over an intense two day face to face training intervention prior to the event day with His Royal Highness and distinguished guests. Although time was of the essence all the teachers and event staff really pulled together as one big team in the build up and on the day to make the event such a fantastic success. 

Following a very successful Premier Skills showcase festival which encompassed a large scale on pitch demonstration managed by the PE teachers, with a huge crowd of onlookers and excited players. Whilst the Head Coach and Senior Manager at the British Council China were both fortunate enough to have had the responsibility to have lead his His Royal Highness around showcasing key areas of the event as well as the global Premier Skills delivery model.  

We were also joined on the day by a number of football stars from China including Mr Yu Tao a current player with Shanghai Shenxin Football Club; Liu Jun, a retired player with Shenhua Football Club; and Mr Cheng Yaodong, a retired player Shenhua Football Club and now Head Coach at Shanghai Shenxin Football Club. For all involved it was a very special event to be a part of and it was a real pleasure to have talked with His Royal Highness on football which is clearly an area of both our passions.