Table Tennis England is making the Coach Licence renewal process easier and fairer.

As the first step towards this, the Board has approved an extension to this year’s renewal date from August 1 until December 1, 2015 – giving coaches four months extra on their licence at NO extra cost.

This extension will enable improvements to our database to be completed which will make it easier for us to share better quality, two-way communication with our coaches. It was also enable these changes to be made as soon as possible rather than waiting until 2016/17.

In December, a new rolling membership year will be introduced, instead of a fixed renewal date. This means coaches will always get the full value of a 12-month licence for their fee.

For example, at present a coach joining on April 12 would only be licensed until July 31 of the same year. Under the new system, they would be licensed until April 11 the following year.

Anyone renewing – or joining the coaching ranks for the first time – between now and December 1 this year will be licensed until November 30, 2016.

The new database will also make it far easier for coaches to connect with Table Tennis England. They will be able to update their personal details, apply for DBS checks online and connect with other coaches and County Sports Partnerships.

New categories of Coach Licence will also be introduced in due course, enabling coaches to plan their careers in greater detail and with the knowledge that we will be providing the best possible support to them.

Fees are also being frozen – it will cost £24 for the Coach Licence, or less for the new categories which are in the pipeline.

Table Tennis England’s National Coaching & Workforce Manager Miriam Beales said: “We have listened to what coaches have told us about the licence, and this is the result.

“It’s a really good opportunity to provide more to our coaches and remove barriers which some people were saying were holding them back.”

This is not the only recent improvement in our service to coaches – we recently introduced the Winning Edge magazine, packed with features to help coaches be the best they can be, to widespread positive feedback.

Click here to read the first issue of The Winning Edge

Paul Stimpson
July 1, 2015