New Zealand Football, in partnership with Oceania Football Confederation, are offering a series of Federation based mentoring courses to enhance football’s community coaches.

The OFC - NZF Coach Mentoring Development Programme has a vision of building a world class coach mentoring system, which serves to significantly improve the coaching capacity and skill with New Zealand.

While the course is targeted at Coach Developers and Directors of Football in the New Zealand Football system, the opportunity is also extended to people like ex coaches who feel they might have something to offer in the mentoring space and who want to give back to the game in a purposeful way.

The objective of the programme is to develop mentoring knowledge with the purpose of building coaching capacity and skill within the club environment. It also looks to establish a coach mentoring plan as part broader coach development strategies within each club in New Zealand.

The course will be delivered in an engaging, interactive style, drawing upon the experience and contexts of participants (Directors of Football and Advanced Coach Developers). The workshop will look into mentoring and coaching approaches and allow participants time for reflection and practise.

The course is led by John Ackerley, an internationally recognised leadership consultant, executive coach, mentor, educator and strategist. His career has included roles with the English Football Association and County Football Association. He has previously delivered this course in New Zealand where it was well received.

Among those who previously took part in the course is Scott Hales, Western Springs AFC’s Head of Men’s Football.

He says it’s an opportunity to learn from one of the best in John Ackerley.

“What stood out the most, honestly, all of it, but the 'how' was inspiring, and the educator, John made it all extremely clear, simplicity but with an end in mind, the group also became mentors to each other and what started off to be an uncomfortable space, became extremely comfortable, despite the silence at times, but that’s ok!

“It’s also an opportunity to understand how important a mentor is, but also how an effective mentor can operate… It’s a must if you are in a leadership role!

“As coaches and in positions of leadership roles, mentoring is something we actually do every single day, it's just recognising and educating us on how we do it for an effective outcome.”

Scott Hales says the course has shaped several new ways to approach football.

“Player communication on all levels, it’s given me what I required when listening and when players seek feedback. It has also aided me in my conversations when managing up.”

The course will cover the following learning areas:

What is coach mentoring?

• Defining coach mentoring

• Building effective coach mentoring relationships

• Developing coach mentoring skills and techniques

Building an effective club mentoring scheme:

• Mentor capacity and training

• Mentee selection

• Matching

• Mentoring formats

• Mentoring scheme structure

The non-residential, three-day, free course will be run in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 

Course numbers are limited, and positions will be offered following a selection process.

Please note registrations close on August 16th.

If you have any further questions please contact Aaron McFarland, NZF Coach Development Manager at Aaron.mcfarland@nzfootball.co.nz

To register your interest please click on the following links:

Auckland - https://nzflearn.co.nz/blog/events/mentoring-workshop-auckland/

Monday 28th September- Wednesday 30th September
Venue: AUT Millennium – 17 Antares Place, Rosedale, Auckland 0632
Registrations Close: 28th August 2026

Wellington - https://nzflearn.co.nz/blog/events/mentoring-workshop-wellington-2/

Friday 2nd October 2026 – Sunday 4th October 2026
Venue: NZCIS – 48 Somme Road, Trentham, Upper Hutt, New Zealand
Registrations Close: 25th September 2026

Christchurch - https://nzflearn.co.nz/blog/events/mentoring-workshop-christchurch/

Wednesday 7th October 2026 – Friday 9th October 2026
Venue: Parakiore – 50 Saint Asaph Street, Central City
Registrations Close: 25th September 2026

Article added: Monday 13 July 2026