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The FA – which is based at Wembley Stadium in northwest London and is responsible for developing and regulating the game in England at all levels, from international football to the grassroots - has taken out an unlimited user licence for the complete Microsoft Office 2007 suite of online training videos from Quasar Anytime, which cover the most efficient and effective way to use Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook.
Masterminding the roll out of the Quasar Anytime videos within the footballing world is the FA’s Saty Gahir, who commented: “We employ a wide range of learning methods at the FA and we’re always looking to improve the learning materials and systems we make available to our personnel.
“I am extremely impressed Quasar Anytime,” he added. “It’s simple to use, clear and to the point – and I’m confident that our people will benefit substantially from its use.
“I made my decision based on Anytime’s content, functionality and flexibility. Although price was not the issue, I have to say that the fact that it’s highly cost effective is a bonus!”
According to Michael Shane, Quasar’s managing director: “Quasar Anytime has the ability to upload and register people in just a matter of minutes. Indeed, registering some 2,000 people on the system takes about two minutes – so registering all of the FA’s users around the country posed no problems for us or, indeed, for the FA.
“We’re delighted to be working with the FA – especially since the FA is so dedicated to increasing its employees’ skills.
“Anytime is an amazing product. Since this range of IT training products was launched a few months ago, just about everyone who has seen it understands the concept - and whoever sees it can relate to it.”
Covering Microsoft Office 2010, Upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Office 2007, Quasar’s Anytime online videos are intended for organisations which want to gain the maximum benefit in terms of worker efficiency and effectiveness following an upgrade of the Microsoft Office suite of programs. They are also available to individuals who want to improve their Microsoft Office skills.
Anytime uses hundreds of short videos that have been specially designed to maintain the important balance of the audio, visual and kinaesthetic elements which are necessary in any successful learning process. One of the system’s benefits is that users can watch, pause, rewind and replay the videos as many times as they like on a PC, laptop, smartphone or mobile device – as long as there is an internet connection.
Central to the system is ‘My Anytime’ - a personal and customisable online portal to each user’s learning programme which shows what online videos are available, what’s been done and what everybody else is doing.
About the Football Association (FA)
The FA was founded in 1863 as the governing body of the game in England. The FA is a not-for-profit organisation and is committed to making football a positive and inclusive experience for everyone involved in the game, allowing all participants to enjoy the game and maximise their ability. The FA is responsible for all regulatory aspects of the game of football in England. Its activities include:
• Promoting the development of the game amongst all ages, backgrounds and abilities in terms of participation and quality. This also involves promoting the availability of the sport to the greatest possible number of people.
• Regulating the game on and off the field of play through the ‘Laws of the Game’ and the ‘Rules of The Association’.
• Sanctioning, either directly or indirectly, all matches, leagues and competitions played in England.
• Overseeing the administration of the disciplinary system, which is applicable to all participants in the game (each club, player, competition, match official and any other person involved in the game in England is bound by the Rules) and the administration of refereeing throughout the game.
• Organising a number of senior men’s, youth’s and women’s national competitions (including most notably The FA Challenge Cup) and the participation of England national representative teams (again, senior men’s, youth’s and women’s teams) in international matches, most notably the men’s senior team in the FIFA World Championships and the UEFA European Championships and friendly fixtures.
Football has more spectators, participants, revenues and media interest than at any time in its history. There are now:
• 7 million participants, plus 5 million in schools;
• 500,000 volunteers;
• 37,500 clubs, including 9,000 youth clubs;
• 2,000 competitions;
• 32,000 schools (17,000 primary);
• 30,000 FA-qualified coaches;
• 27,000 FA-qualified referees;
• 45,000 pitches (21,000 facilities).
The FA acts as the link between the professional game and the amateur game.
What The FA Does
• The FA invests £60m back into the game each year with around £38m going into grassroots football. This investment comes from the income generated by The FA’s broadcast and sponsorship partnerships.
• Every month, nearly 7m people play some form of the game including 3.9m children. There are 125,000 FA-affiliated teams playing in over 1,700 leagues.
• The FA Charity Programme is formulated to drive funds into areas where it can directly play a beneficial role. There are four partners in 2011: The Bobby Moore Fund, Street League, Action for Children and Coaching for Hope.
• The FA and the Football Foundation have developed more than 5,700 projects to the value of over £630m to improve football facilities.
• The FA runs a total of 24 England teams including women’s, youth and disability sides.
• £4.5m is invested in Women’s Football by The FA every year. Over one million women and girls now play the game.
• The FA’s international assistance and development programme is active in all six continents, from refereeing and coaching courses to visits by former England players to raise awareness of health and social issues.
• The FA Hat-Trick Programme has delivered 19 Community Football Development workers in the most deprived communities in England.
• The FA is committed to removing any barriers to people of all ethnic backgrounds playing football.
• The FA has increased The FA Cup Prize Fund distribution with £16.4m going back into the game. Clubs also receive money through the broadcast payments.
• The FA has trained over 140,000 coaches to gain their Level 1 qualification.
• Small-sided football is a huge growth area and The FA runs a national five-a-side competition, The FA Umbro Fives.
• The FA has 55 County and Affiliated Football Associations within membership who develop and administer football locally.
• Since it was launched in June 2007, over two million 5-11 year olds have benefited from The FA Tesco Skills programme.
• The FA‘s Respect programme is aimed at improving levels of behaviour and respect towards match officials and between players, coaches, referees and spectators at all levels of football.
About Quasar
Quasar (quasar.co.uk) is a training company that specialises in delivering end user IT training, along with customer services training. Early in 2011, it launched Anytime: a wide range of online videos delivering e-learning on the Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 suites of products to businesses and individuals.
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