NATIONAL LEAGUE/Emmet Malone: Having successfully overseen the establishment of the much celebrated REAP (Reinvention, Education, Appraisal and Preparation) course at DCU this year, FAI Careers Officer Eoin Hand's next venture into the education market looks set to test the long-professed dedication of club administrators here to the long-term welfare of players.

While the summer's inaugural effort at reintegrating players released by English clubs into life here by way of a residential course at the university won widespread praise, Hand's decision to concentrate this time on the ongoing educational requirements of the Eircom League's players will almost certainly be treated with greater caution.

The aim with PACE (Players' Alternative Career Education) is to provide a fairly diverse range of courses through which players can gain recognised qualifications and, on the face of it, is very much the sort of thing you might expect to win strong support from the more progressive elements of the game here.

After all, one of the main arguments against teenage players heading abroad put forward by the bigger Irish clubs has been the extent to which their education ends up being sacrificed in the cut-throat environment of the English academies.

Improved regulations has already gone some small way towards remedying the situation, while initiatives by individual clubs - the proposal at Manchester City to provide a Leaving Certificate programme to Irish youngsters for instance - has helped a good deal too.

Still, the case for staying in school, getting some qualifications and then pursuing football as a full-time career has always had a strong ring to it - to all, that is, but the 15-year-old with Alex Ferguson in his kitchen.

Hand's new scheme, another collaboration with Darragh Sheridan of DCU, himself a Longford Town midfielder, is intended to move things on to the next stage with players being offered the chance to take courses at local colleges around the country.

Recognition, he says, should not be a problem (the Further Education Training Awards Council are likely to be involved) and work aimed at gauging interest in a number of potential subject areas has already been initiated with the help of the PNAI.

The greatest remaining barrier, believes Hand, is the clubs. They must be persuaded over the coming months to provide practical backing for a scheme which, Hand is convinced, will benefit them all in the longer term.

"I suppose the two main things we are looking for is for the clubs to make the time available for players to do the courses and then to play a part in raising the required funding," says Hand.

The hope is that all of the league's 22 clubs could set aside a particular day each week on which there would be neither games nor training.

Monday, for instance, would be left as "an education day", and courses on sports-related topics like marketing, venue management and coaching could then be organised at colleges.

At this early stage, Hand believes that the scheme has the potential to involve upwards of 10 per cent of the league's players at any one time, but a great deal depends on the reaction of the clubs when a full presentation is made to them next month.

The hope is that Hand can bring them around, but in a league whose members are not renowned for their willingness, or even their ability, to take the longer-term view, he is sure to have his work cut out.