England Football Learning and League Managers Association host first joint alumni event for UEFA Pro Diploma and Technical Director graduates

The alumni programme provides UEFA Pro Diploma and Technical Director graduates with the opportunity to continue learning and networking with other graduates. Football brings highs and lows, and the alumni programme aims to create a community for coaches and technical directors to help them feel comfortable to share their coaching stories and experiences.

Both the UEFA Pro Diploma and Technical Director courses stand at the pinnacle of professional football qualifications, designed to cultivate skilled and ambitious leaders, managers, and coaches who will go on to have successful careers within elite football.

The alumni event involved three workshops exploring key themes of belonging and culture, playing philosophy, and communication. As well as a Q&A with Birmingham City Women’s Technical Director Hope Powell CBE and LMA Chairman Martin O’Neill OBE, alongside various networking opportunities throughout the day.

The first workshop, delivered by Owen Eastwood, explored the importance of showing who you are, providing people an insight into your background and also touched on the importance of establishing clear, defined objectives to ensure organisational departments are all working towards a shared goal. The second workshop, led by recent Bournemouth and Wolves manager Gary O’Neil and 2025 UEFA Pro Diploma Graduate Tim Jenkins, delved into developing coaching philosophy and game models and how to be adaptable in different coaching situations. The third workshop, presented by Eamon Devlin inside the changing room at St. George’s Park Football Centre, looked at the half-time team talk and ways to overcome the challenges coaches face during the 15-minute interval.

These alumni events count towards the graduates CPD hours which they need to fulfil in order to retain their professional qualification. With the success of the alumni event, the hope is to continue hosting similar events in collaboration with the League Managers Association and League Coaches Association to continue bringing coaches together, encouraging them to think differently and develop their coaching skills.

Guy Whittingham, UEFA Pro Diploma & Alumni Lead said: “IWe’re really pleased to partner with the LMA to engage our alumni and support them in their ongoing learning, bringing together like-minded individuals who want to share their coaching and technical director stories and experiences. ”

This is the first-ever alumni event we’ve put on in conjunction with the LMA, and we’ve already had fantastic feedback from our alumni about the benefits of today’s event. We hope that this event is the first of many, so we can continue to keep our alumni informed with the most recent coaching and technical director practices.”

Richard Bevan, LMA Chief Executive added: “We’re pleased to have worked with England Football Learning to host the first-ever joint alumni event and provide UEFA Pro Diploma and Technical Director graduates with access to elite level CPD insights from some exceptional leaders across football and wider sport. Together with England Football Learning we are making important strides in ensuring we are continuing to help develop the current and future coaches and technical directors in men’s and women’s football.”

Chris Hughton, LMA Committee Member and UEFA Pro Diploma graduate commented: "Since being part of the first ever UEFA Pro Diploma cohort, all aspects of the game have changed dramatically. The alumni event has been a fantastic way of learning about the different coaching approaches, and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to all the presenters and their informative sessions ”

Speaking with and hearing from fellow coaches and technical directors about their experiences has provided me with extensive, new knowledge and I am already looking forward to attending the next one.”