Keighley Cougars has become the first Rugby League club in the country – and potentially the first sporting body - to offer a recognised qualification through a ground breaking sports-education awards programme.

‘Sporting Chance,’ designed to equip young people from local disadvantaged communities with new learning and life skills, is being run in conjunction with Incommunities, the Bradford district’s biggest social housing landlord.

Cougars’ second partner is CRI, a national social care charity that has designed and accredited a tailor-made educational programme to positively address and mitigate some of the serious social issues facing young people in Keighley and district. 

This is achieved by engaging them in a range of educational and sporting activities in a safe environment away from the drugs and crime seen on some of the estates in Keighley.

The Sporting Chance award is accredited to the equivalent of 1 GCSE A*-C. It consists of seven modules - coaching, enterprise, environment, education/employment, democracy, healthy lifestyles and safer communities.

Keighley Cougars general manager Helen Carter said: “We are the first Rugby League club to offer such an award and, we believe, the first sporting organisation too.  The programme is purpose built to provide individual development plans for each young person to help them fulfil their true potential and realise their aspirations.”