How has your learning offering evolved, and what prompted the shift?
Pre-pandemic, all our learning was being delivered face-to-face. There are significant practical elements in our coaching and referee development courses, so in some ways that made sense. But not everything needs to be done in a classroom setting with PowerPoint slides. I was confident there were significant elements of our material that could be delivered equally as effectively, if not better, online—freeing learners up to complete courses in their own time.
Covid obviously necessitated and accelerated this, and suddenly the door was wide open to make changes. Since then, we’ve completely revolutionised how we offer learning. Through the brilliant work of my colleague Agustina Videla, we continue to innovate in content design and user experience by always asking ourselves, “What’s next? How can we make this even more engaging and accessible?” I think adopting this curious mindset, where there is no shame in self-critiquing—in order to discover small changes we can make to improve our members’ experience even further—is a real secret to success.
What impact has this had on the learning experience?
We have an incredibly diverse learner base, and almost all are volunteers. This can be a challenge when you’re trying to engage with people with completely different day jobs and lives. We don’t always know who’s in front of us. I once delivered a course in Limerick where I made a throwaway comment about first aid, saying “none of us are doctors”. Three people raised their hands to tell me they were. That was a real moment for me—I realised how important it was to gain a better understanding of who our learners are and to tailor our offering better.
We’re now delivering learning that everyone can complete at their own pace. Our aim is to bring learning to them, rather than expecting them to be in a specific place at a specific time.
We can also be much more flexible in how we structure our courses and ensure the relevance of their content. If someone coaches an under-14 girls’ team, for example, and works in a professional project management environment, asking them to sit through a module on SMART goals could be a waste of their time. That’s why we’re exploring more pre-course profiling, to understand what experience each learner is bringing with them.
While coaching courses have core modules that everyone needs to complete, we can also provide additional options—so learners can explore certain topics of interest in more depth. This curiosity and desire to do more has had a huge impact on engagement and completion rates.
How are you measuring engagement?
We’ve implemented an Active Coach badge, which you need to complete a certain amount of CPD every year to maintain. This gives us a clear indication of who is engaging over a longer period. We’ve also issued guidance that teams without compliant coaches may be stood down. This has made a big difference in the number of people updating their safeguarding certifications, which are mandatory every two years.
For me, engagement relies on us continuing to provide value. Whether you’re a professional player or a parent coach, if what we provide helps you feel more confident, more competent and better prepared, then we’ve done our job.
Learners have consistently told us that their experience is positive. We ask immediately after a course and again three months later, to see what the lasting impact has been. The numbers are strong—over 94% of coaches say they’d recommend the course.
What have been the wider benefits across the IRFU?
It’s had a huge impact on the efficiency of the organisation. We’ve brought together all departments that offer education, to ensure we’re no longer working in silos.
Our content around concussion is a good example. It’s a topic that has implications for coaching, refereeing, medical support and strength and conditioning programmes. Historically, rugby clubs might have received five messages from five different departments. Now we work together to produce a single resource that ticks all the boxes, making it much clearer for the learner.
We’ve also got much more flexibility and scalability—plus we can reach more people without increasing staffing or classroom-related costs.
What’s next for learning at IRFU?
The future is more mobile, personalised and integrated. We’re also looking at how to use data more meaningfully, by identifying regional needs, tailoring content by demographics and tracking trends. We want to give learners tools that slot easily into their lives—especially our professional players who want to do courses on their phones between gym sessions.
And we want to keep listening. We’re here to support the people who keep rugby alive from the grassroots level up, and our goal is to empower them to do that better.
To find out more about how earning through learning can help futureproof your association, get in touch or download our whitepaper.
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