What is the Youth-to-Adult Transition Scheme?

The Youth-to-Adult Transition Scheme is a programme designed for referees who are looking to progress into open-age football from youth football. The scheme is open to referees, regardless of their age.

Our Referees Department have partnered-up with the Essex & Suffolk Border League and the ProKit UK Essex Olympian League (both who have Step 7 divisions in the National League System), to allow the opportunity for referees who are part of the scheme to gain experience of open-age football by being an assistant referee on the Premier Divisions of the respective leagues.

The scheme lasts for around six to twelve months (depending on the referee), where the official will benefit from experiencing what open-age football is like and learning from senior county referees. They’ll also be able to attend a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) session at the start or middle of the season.

Upon completing the scheme, the referees will then have the opportunity to move into refereeing open-age football, which will lead to the referee joining the promotion scheme for the following season as well as, potentially, joining one of the two Supply Leagues based within Essex (Essex Senior and Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties Leagues).

How do I join the Youth-to-Adult Transition Scheme?

You can join the Youth to Adult Transition Scheme at any point within the season.

However, at the start and mid-point of the season, the Referees Department will look to get in touch with referees who have been identified through feedback from league referee club marks and league referee appointment secretaries of youth leagues who could progress to the next format of the game. For further information, please get in touch with the Referees Department.