Building better learning together
Overview
UK Coaching is the national organisation for coaching in sport and physical activity, supporting coaches across the UK to access a wide range of learning and development products and services.
As learner expectations and sporting organisations continue to evolve, UK Coaching wanted to strengthen its approach to learning design, bring fresh perspectives into the organisation and ensure future developments were informed by learner insight and best practice.
To support this ambition, UK Coaching partnered with embed™, combining UK Coaching’s expertise in coach development with embed’s™ experience in learning design, consultancy and content development.
“We wanted to take the opportunity to bring additional skills into the organisation and learn from the wider learning industry.” Hayley Khan, Chief Growth Officer, UK Coaching
The challenge
UK Coaching delivers a diverse range of learning experiences for coaches working across sport and physical activity.
As the learning offer continued to evolve, there was an opportunity to take a more structured approach to understanding learner needs, strengthening learning design and ensuring future development decisions were informed by evidence and insight.
Alongside this, UK Coaching wanted to build internal capability, access specialist expertise and bring additional capacity into the team to support a growing programme of work.
Discovery before design
Before making recommendations or developing solutions, embed™ worked closely with UK Coaching to understand learners, content and organisational needs.
This included:
- Analysis of learner feedback and insight
- Reviews of existing learning products and resources
- Stakeholder workshops and discussions
- Subject matter expert engagement
- Consideration of learner journeys and user experience
The aim was to ensure that decisions about future development were grounded in evidence, learner need and best practice.
“embed™ have helped stretch our thinking and improve the quality of what we are doing. I have been hugely impressed with their responsiveness, creativity, professionalism and the additional expertise and capacity they bring.” Hayley Khan, Chief Growth Officer, UK Coaching
A partnership approach
The relationship has extended beyond a single project, supporting UK Coaching across a range of learning and development initiatives.
By combining UK Coaching’s understanding of coaching and workforce development with embed’s™ learning design expertise and external perspective, the partnership has helped strengthen decision making, improve learner experience and enhance the quality of learning development.
embed™ has also provided valuable additional capacity, enabling projects to progress at pace while maintaining a focus on quality.
A relationship built on trust
As the partnership has developed, embed™ has become a trusted learning consultancy partner, providing both strategic challenge and practical support.
Alongside supporting project delivery, the team has worked collaboratively with UK Coaching to share knowledge, introduce new approaches and strengthen internal capability in learning design and content development.
This combination of expertise, responsiveness and collaborative working has created a partnership built on trust and shared ambition.
Why it matters
High-quality learning experiences have an important role to play in supporting coaches to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence ensuring the sport is safe and fun for all everyone.
By taking an evidence-led approach to learning design and development, UK Coaching can better understand learner needs, make informed investment decisions and continue improving the quality and impact of its learning offer.
The partnership with embed™ has helped provide the expertise, challenge and capacity needed to support this ongoing development.
The impact
Through the partnership, UK Coaching has been able to:
- Strengthen the quality and consistency of learning design
- Apply learner insight more effectively to development decisions
- Enhance learning products and resources through an evidence-led approach
- Build internal capability and confidence across the team
- Access specialist expertise and additional capacity when needed
- Take a more strategic approach to future learning development
Looking ahead
UK Coaching continues to work with embed™ to support the ongoing evolution of its learning offer.
By combining sector expertise with learning design best practice, the partnership will continue to help ensure that learning products and resources remain relevant, impactful and aligned to the needs of coaches and the wider sector.
“We wanted to bring a wider learning perspective into our specialist coaching environment. embed™ brought expertise across digital learning, face-to-face learning and content development, helping us challenge our assumptions and strengthen our approach.” Hayley Khan, Chief Growth Officer, UK Coaching