{"id":896933,"date":"2026-04-16T01:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/896933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T01:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:42:18","slug":"football-themed-course-in-edinburgh-helps-adults-improve-literacy-and-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/896933\/","title":{"rendered":"Football-themed course in Edinburgh helps adults improve literacy and skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Edinburgh<\/a> football-themed learning course is helping adults improve their literacy and numeracy skills.<\/p>\n

The 10-week programme, titled Back of the Net<\/a>, uses the sport to engage participants in a relaxed environment while boosting their reading, writing, communication, and digital skills.<\/p>\n

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Back of the Net. (Image: Hazel Lyons)<\/p>\n

Delivered in Edinburgh by Space at The Broomhouse Hub<\/a> and funded by the City of Edinburgh Council, the course is aimed at adults who may have missed out on education or face barriers such as dyslexia or dyscalculia.<\/p>\n

The programme offers football-related discussions, writing exercises, guest speakers from the world of football, and tours of the Scottish Football Museum and other local stadiums, including Hampden Park.<\/p>\n

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Back of the Net. (Image: Hazel Lyons)<\/p>\n

Back of the Net follows a similar earlier scheme, Glory and Dismay: The Story of Football.<\/p>\n

Past visitors to the programme include Scottish author Ian Rankin, former Hibernian striker Laurie Reilly, and ex-Hearts players Gary Mackay, Andy Webster, and Derek Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Former Scottish football manager Shelly Kerr and Homeless World Cup founder Mel Young also previously took part.<\/p>\n

According to the National Literacy Trust, 26.7% of adults in Scotland, around 931,000 people, face challenges due to a lack of literacy skills.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Back of the Net participant said: “It’s made me able to do a bit of writing and organise my thoughts, which is good.”<\/p>\n

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Participants are also given opportunities to meet and interview former and current football professionals.<\/p>\n

Another participant said: “I learnt more about Scottish football, and I have a great appreciation of it now.”<\/p>\n

The course also addresses broader social issues, covering topics such as racism, sectarianism, homophobia, and sexism through open discussions and guest speakers.<\/p>\n

A participant said: “It has been good just to talk about football in a fun and relaxed environment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Edinburgh football-themed learning course is helping adults improve their literacy and numeracy skills. The 10-week programme, titled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,30441,1102,4884,252896,252897,144571,49026,712,53757,252895,16,15],"class_list":["post-896933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-city-of-edinburgh-council","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-hazel-lyons","tag-literacy-and-numeracy-skills","tag-national-literacy-trust","tag-participant","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-football","tag-scottish-football-museum","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116411849275750782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}