Continuing Professional Development: CPD and Football Courses

CPD stands for Continual Professional Development. There are different approaches to CPD and there isn’t a one fits all approach. There are different types of CPD and it can involve training courses, seminars, workshops, webinars, events and online courses. 

More people are now looking for football courses that come with CPD accreditation and CPD points.

There are a range of courses including performance analysis, technical scouting, how data is used in football all now available with CPD points. Increasingly students who are studying a university degree are now looking for CPD courses to help complete their studies. Football professionals who are working through their coaching badges are also looking for football courses with CPD courses to help complete their courses. 

Other people who are looking for CPD based courses are students who are taking other sport and football courses who are looking to supplement their course with CPD points. There are a number of providers, like AnalyiSport,  who have courses that come with CPD points. 

What are CPD Points? 

CPD courses often have a course description that includes the number of CPD points. Providers try to identify how long a course will take to complete. There is a widely accepted ratio 1:1 that is one course hour = one CPD point.

Across most sectors one CPD point is equivalent to one hour of learning. This means that 1 CPD Unit equals one hour of learning on a CPD Course. The definition of CPD Hours is the time spent for a delegate to be in “active learning”.

What is a CPD Record

A CPD record helps keep track of your learning each year. You might need to provide evidence and documentation of your learning to the professional body or association that you belong to. This evidence helps to validate the work that you have done and may be required to ensure that you retain any accreditation. 

If you are taking CPD courses it is a good idea to keep track of your continual professional development. Most providers will have a dashboard that you can login and see your progress, if you are using multiple providers then you might also want to keep track using an online document. You can use a simple spreadsheet in Excel or Google Sheets to keep track. 

It is also important to check the CPD body that your training provider is using. Are they using an approved CPD provider and have all of the courses gone through the correct process? 

Recording CPD Hours

It is important to record and manage your CPD hours. You might need to evidence your CPD hours at a later date. There are also situations where you will need to provide evidence when you come to renew your professional status or provide them in a work situation. 

You can record them yourself using a tool like Google Docs as we’ve previously explained. CPD providers like CPD UK, who AnalyiSport use, have a free CPD record tool that you can use to record your ongoing Continuing Professional Development. 

The myCPD portal is a free record tool that allows you to manage, record, track and log all of your continual professional development.

What should an online football course offering CPD do? 

Learn by doing

Our Interactive courses allow you to put your skills and knowledge into practice, by taking on the tasks of a professional analyst at an elite club. Our courses are built from standalone modules, so you can choose what to learn, and study on your own schedule. No need to spend time on topics you’ve already mastered, and you won’t have to set aside a whole weekend to complete a course.

All our courses confer an industry-recognised CPD accreditation. We’re the only non-university provider supported by an independent accreditation body.

Where can I get CPD Football Courses? 

At AnalyiSport our courses teach the skills used by professional analysts, from how to build metrics to interpret the data, to the best ways to present analysis to coaches and players. The courses are accredited by CPD UK.

Our courses are designed to complement degree programmes in performance analysis, sports science, coaching and performance, sports data analysis, football studies, and other football-related subjects. 

With a focus on cutting-edge industry knowledge, our resources can enhance students’ employability and ease their transition into the professional game.

Each of the courses have gone through the CPD UK accreditation process, meaning that you can get CPD points for each course that you complete. 

AnalyiSport offer something very different to university degrees in the football industry. Our courses come with CPD accreditation. 

You can search for the range of football courses on the internet. There are courses available on data, analytics, technical scouting, performance analysis and much more. The FA also has a range of resources with the FA learning platform, much of which can be used if you need additional CPD as part of your learning. 

Online learning is well established in football. The FA offer online courses, and if you check the CVs of working analysts on LinkedIn, you’ll see that many have certificates from various online providers.

Only the best providers (like Analyisport) are CPD-accredited. CPD (or Continuing Professional Development) is something that professionals in every industry are required to do. Football analysts do CPD throughout their careers. So most clubs will recognise courses that have CPD learning.

AnalyiSport CPD courses have a tighter focus: we provide the knowledge and skills you need to do the job. There’s no writing: only interactive exercises and multiple-choice quizzes. We won’t set you essays or other assignments: it will be down to you to apply the skills you learn with us.

What our learners say

We’d like to give the final word to one of our learners. He’s well-placed to compare, having done all of our courses as well as a Master’s degree in Performance Analysis. At the end of his first year in the professional game, he was offered positions at Liverpool and Manchester City:

“I can honestly say these were the best online courses I’ve done by a significant distance. I also spent £6k on a Master’s in Performance Analysis, and given my interest solely lied in football, that course taught me a fraction of what your courses did.”