Scottish Rugby announces partnership with Kick Off in Business

10 Feb 2023

Scottish Rugby is partnering with Kick Off in Business (KOIB) through the CashBack School of Rugby programme to support young unemployed adults in disadvantaged areas learn more about starting a business or becoming self-employed.

Starting with a pilot project based at Inch Park (Edinburgh) next month, Kick Off in Business will deliver a week-long course for learners, aged between 16-24, in the community.

The free course will be offered out to CashBack School of Rugby participants – past and present – as well as other members of the community who meet the eligibility criteria.

CashBack Schools of Rugby local to the KOIB course include Castlebrae Community, Holyrood RC, Liberton High School and Gracemount High School.

The course will be delivered by fully qualified business support advisors who have first-hand experience in starting and running small businesses. Influenced through many years supporting enterprise, the course is carefully constructed to cover the topics most learners require. These include finance, grants, sales and marketing, online trading and many other formalities of business set up.

KOIB has previously worked with Premiership League Football clubs to launch similar programmes in their local area.

Welcoming the pilot project, Ken Muir, Head of Rugby Development Operations at Scottish Rugby said: “We are looking forward to working with KOIB. This will be a great addition to the CashBack School of Rugby programme and we look forward to seeing how it will benefit the wider community.”

James Horn, Operations Director from KOIB added: “True to our long and established tradition of working closely with leading partners in sport, we are delighted to announce a new partnership with Sottish Rugby and to be hosting our first course in Scotland.

“We’re really excited about the new relationship with Scottish Rugby. The sport has a huge footprint across Scotland which provides invaluable exposure and the ability to reach more learners.”

Details about the upcoming course in Edinburgh can be found below.

If you would like any further information, please contact the KOIB team at [email protected]