Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Director of Football Andrew Peart believes increasing the number of coach educators locally will be key to the long-term development of the country’s football.

The JFF, in partnership with the region’s governing body Concacaf, recently completed a coach educators workshop — Train the trainer programme, at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at The UWI, Mona Bowl in St Andrew last week.

The course was led by Peart, FIFA technical consultant for the Caribbean Lenny Lake, Ballaz Academy founder Andre Virtue, and Concacaf Head of Education Andre Waugh.

It featured several noted local coaches from across the island, including Manning Cup winning coach with Excelsior Keon Broderick, and was geared towards them joining the current cohort of Jamaica’s coach educators and support coaches doing their C and D licensed courses.

Peart told the Jamaica Observer that equipping more coach educators is a key target for the JFF. However, he says not every coach can be a good coach educator.

“A good coach educator is one who, of course, has credibility in the game as a coach, has knowledge of the game, has those characteristics that would facilitate that respect from others [and] one who understands adult learning principles,” he said.

“It’s not just teaching youngsters, it’s about teaching adults and how do you get the best out of adults who will come into classrooms with prior knowledge, who come into classrooms understanding why they’re there. So a good coach educator is one who will facilitate that sort of environment with adults who want to move on to be better.”

Peart believes having more coach educators benefits football development at all levels.

“What this environment will dictate or need over time is coach educators, coach educator developers, coach developers, coach mentors; so you’ll need that broad framework, which supports the entire ecosystem because in having more coaches now you’re going to need more mentors, more educators to deliver courses, but more mentors, more developers. So it will be an ecosystem that has different target groups supporting the whole football.”

Ballaz Academy Director of Football Paul Alexander was a participant in the course and he feels better equipped moving forward.

“As a coach in the grass-roots environment, my teaching is primarily to kids but coming into the [course] and really understanding the different frameworks, adult learning frameworks, Maslow hierarchy of needs and how that educational awareness goes into creating an environment for learning, has been very useful,” he told the Observer.

“I think it’s very important because if we can now help facilitate an environment that allow student coaches to take ownership of their learning and really come to an understanding of how to become a better coach and we produce better coaches out of that, I think the [players] on the pitch are the ones who are going to be developed and we’ll see the fruits of it down the road.”

Over the past two years, the JFF has placed greater emphasis on improving local coaches.

Recent Reggae Boyz Head Coach and Technical Committee Chairman Rudolph Speid said as of 2026, Jamaica has over 400 C licensed coaches compared to none in 2017, 1500 D licensed coaches, 200 B licensed coaches, 60 A licensed coaches and four in the process of acquiring their pro licence.

(from left) Andrew Peart, Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Director of Football; Andre Waugh, concacaf senior technical development leader; and Lenny Lake, Concacaf technical expert at a Concacaf Coaches Educators Workshop at the JFF/Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at UWI, Mona, on April 9, 2026. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

PEART…a good coach educator is one who of course has credibility in the game as a coach, has knowledge of the game, has those characteristics that would facilitate that respect from others [and] one who understands adult learning principles (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

ALEXANDER…as a coach in the grass-roots environment, my teaching is primarily to kids but coming into the [course] and really understanding the different frameworks, adult learning frameworks, Maslow hierarchy of needs and how that educational awareness goes into creating an environment for learning, has been very useful (Photo: Naphtali Junior)