The PDC is our “breading ground” for outstanding young talent in the area, where our coaches will work with the players on the long term development principle with the aim of transitioning the gifted and talented players into the academy set up in a way that is easily for them to manage.

Your son is one of only a select group of players who could be invited to the center, the PDC allows all of our players to be coached in their age groups and features a 2 group banding; Development and Advanced, each group has its own programme of work and targets that are designed and delivered by our outstanding coaching staff (All club coaches with UEFA/FA Qualifications and DBS) with the aim of supporting each player to realise their potential.

We here at 'Port Vale Football Club' we strongly advocate “all round” player development not only for your child, but his grassroots team mates and so we would actively encourage your child to continue to represent their grassroots team.

Both the Development and Advanced groups will complete 5x 10 week blocks of coaching activity throughout the year and at the end of each block they will receive written feedback from their coach that will form the foundations of the next block of delivery and potential movement between the groups dependent on their development. If a player shows promise and demonstrates the characteristics of a PVFC player they will be recommended and invited to attend the Academy for a trial period.

Throughout the season the center will participate in a fixture programme against other professional club centers and the PVFC Academy age group teams.

Official PVFC training kit will be provided for each child at a small extra expense to you as a parent but we feel an environment where each player is wearing PVFC kit only helps them feel even more a part of a professional and positive environment.