New Delhi, Mar 22 (IANS): In an effort to develop coaches from the grassroot level and enable them to meet the requirements and the ever-growing demands of international hockey, the sport's governing body in India on Friday launched the Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway.

The meticulously designed programme aims to provide certification to those candidates who are already coaches or wish to pursue coaching as a career.

This simplified education structure will provide certification to develop coaches from the grassroots through to a high performance/international level.

The programme consists of a combination of web-based modules and face-to-face interactive courses, underpinned by a competency based assessment process.

Those candidates who successfully complete the Hockey India Level '0', Hockey India Level '1' and Hockey India Level '2' coaching courses will be eligible to enrol for the FIH Academy Level 1 Course provisionally scheduled during the FIH Men's Series Finals in Bhubaneswar in 2019.

Emphasising that the Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway could potentially revolutionise the sport and eventually help India to catapult to the top at the world level, Mushtaque Ahmad, President, Hockey India, said: "This programme is carefully designed to ensure it is simple yet effective for those pursuing it. As we have assessed through the past several years, we find that there is no dearth of talent among players or coaches in the country.

"There is tremendous passion for the sport and with the Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway, we want to provide those interested in taking up hockey coaching as a profession with the right course.

"We at Hockey India believe this will help bring about the right structure of playing at a very basic level and we are certain this will have a positive impact on the national teams too. We have shared the circular with all our State Member Units and are confident this will receive good response from across the country," he added.