Plans are afoot to expand a football mentoring workshop to all Oceania countries.
Developing Mentors is a partnership between the Oceania Football Confederation and English FA which aims to boost skills and knowledge in leadership and mentoring.
OFC teamed up with the English FA to help develop coaches in the Pacific Islands. Photo: Oceania Football
30 participants from Tonga, Solomon Islands and Fiji were taking part in the initial pilot programme, which was being delivered online in the wake of Covid-19.
Tonga Football's Palu Uhatahi Tuamoheloa said the webinar had taught them skills they could pass on to others in the football community.
"We're looking at inter-personal skills and the mentoring, which is something very new for everyone who is participating in this course. It's not just for us in the main island of Tongatapu but also involves those in the outer islands," she said.
"With the ongoing Just Play grassroots programme in Tonga and as part of our volunteers training this is something that really works well for the future of our volunteers."
OFC Head of Social Responsibility Melissa Palombi said they were already speaking with the English FA about potential collaborations and the global pandemic presented an opportunity to make use of their online learning resources.
"It's a workshop that they've previously done face to face but they've adapted a lot of their educational components due to the pandemic to be delivered online or via webinar series," she said.
"We weren't really sure what the connectivity in terms of how successful the workshops were going to be. We wanted to trial a pilot before rolling it out across all of the Member Associations, so the pilot is in Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands and after that we're hoping to expand that and offer other webinars in the same manner."
Photo: Oceania Football Confederation
Melissa Palombi said the webinars were being provided free of charge and were helping to build leadership skills in a range of participants, including coaches, referees, development and technical staff.
Palu Uhatahi Tuamoheloa completed the first two 90-minute sessions and believed such initiatives were long overdue.
"It's a new era for us. It's a great opportunity and with Covid at this time with the lockdown we see this as an opportunity for us. This is something we should have done ages before but having this opportunity from the British FA it's mind-opening for all of us."
Tonga Football Association Head of Social Responsibility Palu Uhatahi Tuamoheloa. Photo: Tonga Football
The English FA conducted coach education workshops with Member Associations in North and Central America and the Carribean at the end of last year, which later included an online component.
Melissa Palombi said OFC was keen to offer more programmes in the future.
"They had a series of different workshops that they are able to deliver. We picked this one to begin with so hopefully we will be able to roll out some of the other ones in the future."