A pair of lucky Sale Sharks Community Trust apprentice coaches had the chance to meet HRH Prince Harry as they delivered a special rugby training session to school children at Manchester City’s football academy.
Callum Fisher and Conor Steel, both 19, also met the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, at the event to celebrate the CoachCore apprenticeship scheme, which was established in 2012 by Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Designed to give young people, often from deprived backgrounds, the chance to train as coaches, CoachCore offers year-long apprenticeships combining formal learning and on-the-job training with local partner sporting bodies.
The award-winning Sale Sharks Community Trust has been part of the Manchester CoachCore programme since it was set up in January this year. And Callum, from Salford, and Conor, from Sale, were two of the first recruits.
Tom Leader, Sale Sharks Social Inclusion Manager, said: “Since Callum and Conor started working with us they have grown, not only as coaches, but also as individuals and we are so proud to have them working within our Community Team.
“It’s briliant to be a part of the Team Manchester CoachCore programme. It offers a fantastic apprenticeship and plenty of opportunities for the young people that we work with.
“To have the chance to meet Prince Harry and Andy Burnham and to hear them speak so highly of the programme and the great work it is doing was fantastic and I know it meant a lot to Callum and Conor.”
After a successful start to the programme so far, the Sale Sharks Community Trust will be working with more apprentices again next year.
“Since we started with the CoachCore programme we’ve had some fantastic outcomes,” Tom added. “Now we’re all really looking forward to supporting more young people from Greater Manchester.”
