The Oceania Football Confederation is proud to announce the launch of its new online learning platform OFC Learn, which will revolutionise the way people learn across Oceania and in other regions around the world.
Funded by UEFA Assist – UEFA’s programme to support other Confederations and their Member Associations – OFC Learn aims to create a community of learners.
OFC Learn (which can be accessed at: https://ofclearn.com) will offer different educational resources such as online courses, webinars, a library of articles and community groups to share examples of good practice.
The launch of the first phase, which will have content added to it on a regular basis, focusses on referee and coach education materials, with OFC Member Associations having access to online courses and informative articles free of charge.
OFC General Secretary Franck Castillo said it is important to integrate online learning into the football development strategies of both the OFC and its Member Associations.
“Education plays a huge role in football development across our region and that is why online learning is so important, especially in these times of the pandemic,” Castillo said.
“No matter the circumstances, we are responsible for equipping our people with the tools and resources to continue to ensure football thrives.
“While the first phase is launching today, we are expanding OFC Learn to other educational fields as well.
“I would like to thank our partner UEFA Assist; OFC is incredibly grateful for their funding and continued support.”
OFC Learn will also branch out to include corporate, administration, medical, marketing and communications fields, with overall objectives to build capacity in all Member Associations and assist global learners to achieve the following:
*Provide positive experiences for all involved
*Raise learning standards and foster a culture of improvement in the learning community
*Enhance the effectiveness of formal and informal learning opportunities
*Identify areas of research to apply best practice methodology tailored not only to the Pacific, but international environment
*Increase the number of active learners across the globe
UEFA Head of International Relations Eva Pasquier said capacity building is a key goal of UEFA Assist.
“We are delighted to share experiences from UEFA and its Member Associations to enhance the fantastic work done by our colleagues from OFC,” Pasquier said.
“This is truly an excellent resource that will have a lasting impact across the entire region.
“We look forward to continuing our collaboration with OFC and developing even more exciting content over the coming months.”
OFC Chief Football Officer Patrick Jacquemet said having a platform which was easy to access and use was a priority.
“I think anyone who visits the site will find it easy to use, it’s very intuitive and has been designed to enable quality discussions between everyone involved,” Jacquemet said.
“I would like to acknowledge the Education and High Performance team for bringing OFC Learn to life.
“OFC Learn is something I enjoy engaging with and I look forward to building relationships with people across the Pacific and the world.”
About UEFA Assist: putting football first around the world
UEFA launched Assist, a football development programme, in 2017. Its objective: to share the experience and know-how of UEFA and its Member Associations beyond Europe.
By working closely with UEFA’s five fellow Confederations and FIFA, Assist has built on existing collaborations with the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North and Central America), CONMEBOL (South America) and the OFC (New Zealand and South Pacific island nations).
So far, Assist has channelled UEFA support to more than 200 football development projects in close to 60 countries worldwide. Initiatives focus on four main goals:
• Building capacity
• Developing youth football
• Strengthening infrastructure
• Supporting UEFA Member Associations to create their own solidarity programmes.
SOURCE: OFC/PACNEWS
