CHICAGO (June 14, 2019)— Building on the success of the Digital Coaching Center, U.S. Soccer will launch the U.S. Soccer Learning Center on July 1, 2019 to serve as an online tool for coaches, referees and others to participate and manage all of U.S. Soccer’s educational and license programs. The all-inclusive platform will provide a centralized home to pursue education and licensure as well as a unified framework for instructors and administrators to deliver standardized content.
The platform will be free for members and serve as a single resource for scheduling, course registration, administrative processing, technical content, payment and monitoring development of coaches and referees. In addition to becoming the new home of U.S. Soccer Coach Education and Referee Programs, the Learning Center (LC) will include content from U.S. Soccer’s High Performance department as well as health and safety requirements. Newly introduced SafeSport training requirements and background checks will also be run through the LC.
Individuals will be able to create a profile within the LC at no cost. With their profiles, members will be able to search and register for coaching and referee courses according to member association, level or location. Members will also be able to access online materials, submit assignments, communicate in a virtual classroom, complete payments, access their certifications and more.
The Learning Center builds on the success of the Digital Coaching Center, welcoming Referee Programs and other Sport Development initiatives into a streamlined digital platform. U.S. Soccer launched the Digital Coaching Center in 2015 and the platform has been a tremendous tool in growing the number of licensed coaches in the country. There are now 132,000 licensed coaches in the U.S., nearly a 200-percent increase from the Digital Coaching Center’s introduction in 2015. The platform supported the registration, course management and licensing of coaches nationwide and served as a streamlined headquarters for Coach Education. Four years later, every U.S. Soccer Coaching Education course is organized in the Digital Coaching Center and there are nearly 250,000 users. The Learning Center aims to bring the same success to Referee Programs and help bring Sport Development material to a larger audience.
The launch of the LC comes after an extensive multi-year review process led by U.S. Soccer members to identify needs and determine a more efficient way to support all Sport Development stakeholders. The LC is a response to that review process that will serve as a centralized platform that hosts unified processes to ensure consistency, quality control and overall support for coaches and referees at every level. At zero cost to member associations, the LC will allow those organizations to reinvest funds into resources and education opportunities to support their stakeholders at the grassroots level.
Visit learning.ussoccer.com to learn more.