As part of National Apprenticeship Week, we wanted to shine a light on one our employers, Billesley Tennis Centre. The centre has been a part of the Birmingham Coach Core programme since its inception in 2017 and a key partner in providing placements for young people as well as providing facilities for training and events.
To date they have employed two apprentices, supporting them in completing their level 1 and 2 Tennis coaching qualifications as well as providing a range of opportunities to develop their skills working with schools, young people and adults as part of the centre’s community programme.
We heard from Head Coach and programme manager, Matt Tew, on how Coach Core has impacted the business.
Name: Matt Tew
Employer: Birmingham Community Leisure Trust.
Tell us a bit about your organisation: Birmingham Community Leisure Trust operate the leisure centres across Birmingham where we cover all regions of the city. Myself and our team of coaches are based at Billesley Indoor Tennis and Fitness Centre which is now one of the main sports hubs on the Birmingham Contract. The sports we run include Tennis, Gymnastics, Badminton and Netball with many other sports available across our sites.
Why did you join Coach Core and what has been the highlight so far? We joined the Coach Core programme as it was a really interesting and wonderful opportunity to bring a new person into the team and give them the opportunity to become a coach. Coaching has given myself many opportunities and I was keen to share these to more people that are interested in becoming coaches also.
The framework of the programme and the partnerships seemed the best way of doing this. The highlight for myself would be working with my first apprentice, Reiss, on the LTA Patron Event at the National Tennis Centre where the Duchess of Cambridge was unveiled as the new Patron of the LTA. It was a great opportunity to work with Reiss on this opportunity and to work with local children also.
What is your hidden talent/interesting fact about yourself? My interesting fact would be that I’m an award-winning coach – In 2017 I won the Warwickshire Tennis Award for education which was for my work with our apprentice and schools.