Fit for Future.
Training & Development Update
You will hopefully be aware that a “Fit for Future” group is looking at all aspects of the Association and in particular the training and development of Markers and Umpires.
There has been some excellent robust discussion so far with a clear commitment to ensure that recruitment, training, development and retention of Officials is prioritised.
Marker Training & Development
Our current area of focus is rethinking the Marker training and assessment workflow. This has a big impact on recruitment of not just Markers but future Umpires and we need to get this right. The current process is confusing and unclear and our priority is to introduce improvements to the workflow with clear guidance to enable us to start running Marker courses again in the Winter.
We have already sought your help by requesting your expression of interest in becoming Marker Mentors and Assessors and we thank you for a fantastic response to that request. We will be in contact with all those that applied in due course to outline the next steps.
Umpire Training & Development
We will be looking at new initiatives for training and assessing our Umpires. The process is robust but, with some minor tweaks, updated resources and the use of some technology, we hope to improve the experience of umpires passing through the process. Our aim is to also try and reduce the costs burden when we are all feeling the pinch.
There is some significant work to do over the coming months to ensure that we deal with a backlog of new applications and expired certificates. We hope to be able to make this as pain free as possible for all involved and hope to reduce the amount of travelling required to attend workshops and assessments.
What’s Next
There are some immediate actions we need to take to get us prepared for running both Umpire and Marker courses later this year.
Apart from courses where commitments have been made, NO further Umpire or Marker courses and assessments will be planned and undertaken until further notice.
This will allow us time to update our resources, recruit and train new personnel and retrain existing personnel.
We now ask all Umpire members currently involved in the training & development of Umpires and Markers and those that wish to be considered for the following roles to register your interest using the form at the link below:
https://forms.gle/tnDcBmd5zh9AmuR3A
We are seeking expressions of interest for the following roles:
Umpire Course Trainers (tutors)
Marker Course Trainers (tutors)
Umpire Assessors (examiners)
Training Assistants (to assist trainers organise Workshops and assessments, they are not involved in the examination of candidates)
Training Administrators including Workbook markers
Timescales are quite tight and so we would welcome your responses by July 31st
Whilst we appreciate that the Bowls England National Championships take up a great deal of time for Officials, we will require some commitment to join virtual meetings and training sessions to ensure that we disseminate a standard approach for the benefit of our customers.
Finally, we will be managing and publishing a register of people allocated to these roles to help all members understand who does what in our organisation.