More free training...

Britain is full of 'back to school' posters even though it's August and schools haven't started yet.

This used to make me cross when I was a kid. Of course I hated school - and just wanted to play football. 'What's the point of school when I'm clearly going to end up playing for a top flight club like Middlesbrough and perhaps win the World Cup with England?' went my thinking.

Which shows how things don't work out: I now realise that I was lucky to be going to school - and that it was more useful than playing football for nine hours a day each August. The message at the East Africa Cup is you can do both - as we say in the short film 'nobody kicks a ball until they've completed a workshop' [see Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/East-Africa-Cup/117399884972074 ].

What some people don't perhaps realise is that the teams who are involved in the EAC need to show a year round commitment to using sport in their community: and this means education. Whether it's learning about conflict resolution, HIV and AIDS awareness, first aid or leadership skills making sure that you people learn more than football is at the heart of what we do.

The same goes for us in the training team, which is why we are encouraging people working in sport for development to get in touch if they are interested in online media skills training which has a sports twist. Our online journalism and media skills courses are aimed at both journalists and people who need to build relationships with people using the media as part of their work respectively. Both have a sports theme.

Places are limited, as we don't have an unlimited supply of mentors, so to get involved go to the Facebook page and leave a message telling us why you are interested in learning about how to use the media to improve your sport organisation's community work.

And as for the 'class of 2010' don't forget to finish your current iLearn courses… or you'll be put on detention.