A total of 22 such events will be held in total with the aim of "improving the quality and quantity of experienced people who can provide support to athletes and at competitions, ultimately ensuring the development of athletics at a national and regional level."

Beginning at the first Grand Prix of the year in Dubai in February, courses will also be held alongside events in Beijing, Arizona, Nottwil, Grosseto, Tunis and Berlin.

Following on from the announcement that the IPC Grand Prix Series will be extended from seven to nine events for the 2014 season this initiative will allow standards and therefore help attention to rise even further, it is hoped. 

The courses will encompass athletics educator training, international and national technical officials course, classification's codes and national coaching.

By raising standards the courses should also help to draw greater attention to the stars of IPC athletics ©Getty Images




At the first IPC Grand Prix in Dubai, athlete educator courses will be supported by the National Paralympic Committee of the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Agitos Foundation's Grant Support Programme, launched earlier this year.

The programme should increase educational opportunities in regions particularly including the Asia as well as the Americas and Africa.

They will also increase opportunities for classification, coaching and officiating, as well equipping volunteers with more skills.

The support is part of the IPC's overall aim to raise worldwide standards and development the Paralympic disciplines after these were central themes of the recent IPC General Assembly in Athens.

A number of the other workshops are being organised in conjunction with the Agitos Foundation, the IPC's global development arm, and the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games.

These are providing a "pioneering outreach programme to share knowledge and expertise across Local Organising Committees ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games," it is claimed. 

They include a chief classifier workshop next January in Germany and a national classification and coaching course in Jamaica next August.

IPC Athletics is also developing online resources for classifications, with additional modules for technical officiating.