PL Inspires celebrates three years of changing lives

The Premier League is celebrating the fourth season of its secondary school education programme, Premier League Inspires.

Developed by the Premier League and professional football clubs, the scheme creates life-changing opportunities for young people who have been identified by their schools as needing extra support to engage with activities, helping them to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes needed to succeed in life.

Using the power of football, the programme helps to prepare 11 to 25-year-olds for further education and employment through a series of face-to-face mentoring sessions, workshops and social-action projects.

More than 630 schools and 18,500 young people from across England and Wales have taken part in Premier League Inspires since it launched in 2019.

The Premier League has invested more than £9.8million into the programme, through the Premier League Charitable Fund.

Clubs throughout the leagues work in partnership with local schools to create a tailored programme to meet their pupils' needs.

This season, 44 professional football club community organisations across the Premier League and English Football League will deliver Premier League Inspires sessions at their stadiums, in local schools and at alternative educational settings, with partnership support from the Professional Footballers' Association.

"The Premier League Inspires programme has enabled clubs across the country to work directly with young people most in need of support, providing them with opportunities to help them succeed at school and in life," said Premier League Head of Communities, Nick Perchard.

"The programme uses football as a hook to develop participants' personal and life skills and it's brilliant to see what the young people have achieved on this programme since its launch."

Premier League Inspires also supports youth social action and volunteering in the community through a partnership with the #iwill Fund.

In addition, young people are given the opportunity to take part in the annual Premier League Inspires Challenge.

Through this, they are invited to consider some of the challenges facing their football club and community, exploring ways to overcome these issues through positive social action.

Academy players from football clubs support the programme, engaging with participants at sessions and events, including the annual Premier League Inspires Challenge celebration.

More than 1,200 PL Inspires sessions across England and Wales have been supported by Academy players to date.

Also in this series

Part 2: Man Utd encouraging young people to grow into role models
Part 3: How Blackburn are helping students make the step up
Part 4: How AFC Bournemouth helped change a schoolboy's path
Part 5: Learning from the press box: Wigan's media experience
Part 6: 'Students believe they have a future thanks to Cardiff City'