I know we have discussed this before, but there is some new info out there recently that I've been alerted to by our club secretary.

Here's the press release.
http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/may...ach-education/
It seems we have some free courses available but only for coaches who are already at a certain level. I'm not too concerned with this as we all pay for it one way or another, but I do applaud the move to some form of online education and only 1 day at course.

Here's a video overview, which I haven't looked at properly yet.
http://coaching.uka.org.uk/video/coa...date-may-2012/

FAQs
http://coaching.uka.org.uk/qualifica...-award/egc-faq

and here is where the FMR seems to be regarded as irrelevant.

Scroll down to "Who is Eligible to take this qualification"

Eligible - Level 2 Endurance (That's me :thumbup

Not eligible - Level 2 Fell & Mountain Running, Level 3 Fell & Hill, Level 4 Fell & Hill :thunbdown:

As someone who went on the FMR2 a few years ago and left after weekend 1 as it was almost identical to the level 2 endurance I had already done, I am amazed that they do not see this as on the same level as Level 2 endurance.
I can't speak from experience for the level 3 & 4 qualifications, but I would hazard a guess that they are much more in depth and therefore it is even more astounding that it isn't deemed credible as a stepping stone to move to these new qualifications.

I wonder then how the FRA views this. Many coaches / clubs have taken up these qualifications until quite recently. These were certainly perceived as being relevant and part of the UKA coach development system, but now are deemed insignificant.