First of its kind scouting programme launched with Starling Bank
We're excited to launch the Starling Bank Scout School, a new initiative aiming to create more talent ID scouts dedicated to the girls’ and women’s game.
Starling Bank Scout School launches as the spotlight remains on the shortage of scouting staff in the women’s game. As well as launching the initiative, we've also recently appointed our first colleague dedicated full-time to female player recruitment.
The launch of Starling Bank Scout School follows a number of moves from Starling and Saints to grow the women’s game, with the bank the first sponsor to take front of shirt sponsorship of the women’s team and not the men’s. Over the last year, the club and Starling Bank have recruited 45 women to go on and become grassroots football coaches as part of our successful Coaches of Tomorrow programme.
Building on the success of the Coaches of Tomorrow programme, we'll now be working with Starling Bank to tackle the issue of talent scouting by finding more people who are keen to become scouts and help identify female talent within the Hampshire region. The Starling Bank Scout School has been created to recruit 15 participants in total and is open to anyone over the age of 16.
Those who sign up begin their training in February and will complete England Football Learning's Introduction to Talent Identification course, and benefit from nine additional development sessions led by our Talent Identification team.
Our Talent Identification team will support and mentor the scouts over a period of three months with webinars and face-to-face training events hosted at Staplewood Training Campus. The sessions aim to give participants the extra skills and confidence needed to go out and spot the next stars like Ella Morris or Lucia Kendall within the region.
Marieanne Spacey-Cale, our Head of Girls and Women’s Football said: “We’ve seen a huge growth period for interest in women’s and girls’ football over the last few years, but now we really need to future-proof our industry to make sure we have a continued pool of talent coming through at all levels. This initiative will give people the opportunity and skills required to help identify talented female players across the region who could go on to become our future footballing stars.”
Ellie Cross, Women’s Football Advocate at Starling Bank said: “The men’s game benefits from dedicated talent experts and networks, but that’s not yet the norm for the women’s game. Women need, and deserve, talent scouts focused on finding future female players. The Starling Bank Scout School is a key part of our mission to level the playing field for all.”
Applications need to be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Sunday 4th February 2024. To apply, visit our Starling Bank Scout School page.
