TRIALS for a new football and education programme with Oxford City FC begin on Wednesday.

The club has teamed up with Oxford & Cherwell Valley College and Premier Sports, a company which sets up education schemes at schools, to offer full- and part-time courses for men and women in all aspects of the game.

Successful applicants, aged between 16 to 19, will play for the club in midweek college leagues against teams including Birmingham City, Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers.

And off the pitch, students will study subjects such as sports science, coaching and first aid, leading to NVQ and Btec qualifications.

City manager Justin Merritt, who is also managing director of Premier Sports, which runs similar programmes at Thame’s Lord Williams’s School and North Oxfordshire Academy, Banbury, said: “The college has the expertise and the facilities to develop the academic aspect and the club is a live working environment so students can dip into everything involved with running a football club. There are 35 teams at Oxford City, so they will be doing hands-on coaching, and on the playing side they will be coached full-time by A-Licence (FA-recognised) coaches to reach their potential.”

The best footballers will become team apprentices, the first semi-professional non-league club to run such a scheme, while the rest focus on coaching and other football-related skills.

Mr Merritt added: “We really want to get a girls’ academy started and get more young players into city’s first team and set up a conveyor belt through all our teams.”

The course, which will initially take in about 20 apprentice players and 30 to 40 other students, also has links with Bucks New University, in High Wycombe, for students to further their studies.

Trials take place on Wednesday and Thursday from 11am at City’s ground at Court Place Farm, in Marston. For details, call 01865 551015 or send an email to football@ocvc.ac.uk tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk