There is a clear pathway set out by the Scottish Football Association for the development of coaches at child, youth and adult levels. The structure of coach development is broken down to between 4 and 5 levels depending on the age group, each with a greater degree of difficulty and more specialised than the level which precedes.

Levels 1, 2 and 3 at child and youth age groups are participation courses with coaches receiving a certificate of attendance. The real test of a coach comes at Levels 4 and 5 for the Working with Children License (Child Level 4) and the toughest license to achieve, the Youth License (Youth Level 5). These are residential courses and are the highest pinnacle achievable in youth coaching.

Youth License Holders
Aberdeen Football Club has four coaches who have passed the Youth License. Youth Academy Assistant Director, Neil Simpson, U17 Coach Colin Walker, our coach at the Kilwinning centre, Jim McCubbin and Dundee based coach Ewan Peacock have all passed the course successfully.

Children's License Holders
Brian Paterson and Gavin Levey (U12) have achieved the Children's License. Again, this is a residential course held at the SFA's coaching centre in Largs and covers a series of modules.

Level 4 (Youth)
The Level 4 Youth Award has recently been introduced by the SFA to bridge the gap between the Coaching in the Game Award and Youth License. Aberdeen FC currently has 10 coaches who have achieved Level 4 status.  Mark Emslie (U15), Scott Paterson (U14), Paul Craig (U13), Brian Paterson (U12), Gavin Levey (U12), Andy Robb (10), Jim Glover (Edinburgh), Mark Slater (Elgin), Jim Bain (Glasgow U17) and Ian Fleming (Dundee) currently hold this award.

Goalkeeping License
We currently have three Goalkeeping License holders headed by former Scotland international Jim Leighton. Both Jim Phimister and Keith Paterson share this award with the Scotland Hall of Fame member.

We encourage all our coaches to continue their development in order that we can offer our young players the best coaching.