The Irish FA is the governing body for football in Northern Ireland. The Association is responsible for developing, promoting and fostering international and domestic football within Northern Ireland. Our aims have always remained true to developing and promoting football for all in Northern Ireland. The IFA has almost 1,000 adult teams, 900 boys’ teams, 300 school teams and 50 women’s teams. The application seeks funding for a total of 61 participants drawn from four categories of VET staff: 1. Community and grassroots coaches employed by local football clubs, local councils and schools within the region to deliver vocationally relevant training to young players; 2. Coaches involved in Women’s football; 3. Coaches involved in futsal development in Northern Ireland; 4. Club coaches involved in study towards the UEFA ‘Pro’ or ‘A’ Licence within the Irish FA coaching department. The Irish FA has firmly embedded European mobility at the centre of its coach education programmes and views dissemination of the outcomes, processes and competences derived from this involvement as critical to sustaining the improvement in standards throughout Northern Ireland. The specific objectives are summarised below: 1. To provide participants with access to a European centre of excellence and to allow them to acquire the skills involved in the theory, practice and delivery of the most advanced coaching technologies available in the world. 2. To reduce unemployment rates and enhance employability of participants through the acquisition of additional skills and qualifications as a direct result of undertaking European mobility. 3. To improve career progression for mobility participants as a direct result of the innovative skills and competences acquired during the mobility. 4. To monitor employment rates among mobility participants and compare the data with statistics obtained from coaching personnel, who have not participated in European mobility, for a period of 3 years after completion of the project mobility. 5. To improve the skills and knowledge base of coaches in Women’s and Girls’ football and increase participation to levels comparable with European countries. 6. To gain an understanding of the infrastructure required to organize and deliver a major UEFA European Women’s competition. 7. To use Portuguese coaching competences and practices to enhance the participation of young people in futsal in Northern Ireland. The relevance of this project to improving the employability of participants is validated by employer surveys which conclusively indicate that candidates with European coaching experience are much more likely to be short-listed for interview or offered employment, indicating that these skills are in demand in the UK labour market. One of the key aspirations of this project is to use the mobility work placements to bring together ideas and innovation, to identify and develop elite players and improve talent development within Northern Ireland through a clear and identifiable route through the schools, community and grassroots coaching frameworks. Work programmes for women’s football coaches will place a strong emphasis on studying how young talented players are identified at the earliest opportunity and how that talent is supported and sustained through the community and grassroots infrastructure in the European partner country. These studies will be crucial to the employability of the participant coaches but will also be pivotal in increasing participation rates in women’s football in Northern Ireland. The mobility outcomes will have a significant impact on the restructuring of the Irish FA regional talent identification programmes in women’s football. As such, mobility will have a major impact in these sectors on a local, regional and national basis.