Girls Academy & Dual Careers Pathway (Ages 16-21)
The Girls Academy Dual-Career Academy was introduced at Aston Villa Football Club in the 2020/21 season, after the Women’s first team successfully gained promotion into the top tier of women’s football. The U21s are now a Category One Professional Game Academy (PGA) under the FA's new pathway. The Girls Academy squad links directly with Aston Villa Women’s first team, with the aim of developing players to a standard where they are ready to move into our first team.
The full-time programme includes:
- Elite-level training at Aston Villa Football Club’s first-team training ground
- A comprehensive fixture programme within the FA Professional Game Academy League
- A programme where players can access up to 10-15 hours of contact time per week
- Host family provision (if required).
To support our players with the logistics of getting to and from the training ground, we also provide a minibus service - which is available for transporting students between Sutton Coldfield Station and our three local education providers.
High level training & education programme (10-15 hours weekly), including:
- Five pitch-based sessions per week
- Two Strength & Conditioning sessions per week
- One educational workshop per week (careers support, psychology, lifestyle and more)
- Analysis - training and games are recorded and uploaded to Hudl for players to review performance
- Competitive matches in the FA Professional Game Academy League programme alongside friendlies against boys teams, and senior teams in both the National League and Women’s Championship
Students can stay at their local education provider if they wish, or they can apply to one of our associated education partners - who work closely with us to ensure the academic side of the timetable is flexible; allowing students to balance both their academic studies and a full-time training programme.
A highly experienced Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT), including:
- Technical Coaches (UEFA A & B qualified)
- Goalkeeping Coach
- Medical Lead
- Physical Performance Lead
- Performance Psychology & Player Support
- Education Lead
- Nutrition Support
- Analyst
Training at Aston Villa Football Club's first-team training ground; Bodymoor Heath, with access to:
- Excellent grass pitches
- High Performance Centre
- Medical room
- Analysis suite
- Classroom
Additional Support
- Individual Development Plans - performance feedback on both academic and football progression
- Access to the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) which runs alongside the programme and offers 64 UCAS points on completion
- Welfare and safeguarding support
We are passionate about ensuring we deliver a well-balanced dual careers programme, and have a dedicated Educational Lead in place who liaises with schools, colleges and universities to best support players in their own individual education and/or career path. This programme also works in harmony with Aston Villa Women's ‘Students of the Game Programme’, which emphasises and supports the dual-career model.
We pride ourselves on ensuring we are able to offer the best possible programme to support players achieve both their academic dreams and footballing ambitions. For more information, please go to our education page.
