For­mer Na­tion­al head coach Rus­sell Lat­apy is among a new in­take of UE­FA Pro Li­cense can­di­dates for a two-day ses­sion at Ham­den Park in Scot­land start­ing to­day.

A pro­ces­sion of world-class coach­es have grad­u­at­ed from this pres­ti­gious course and a roll-call of fa­mil­iar faces have ap­plied for the cur­rent two-year li­cense, the high­est ech­e­lon of the coach­ing lad­der.

The UE­FA Pro Li­cence is the fi­nal coach­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tion avail­able, and fol­lows the com­ple­tion of the UE­FA'B' and 'A' Li­cens­es. While the course takes a year to com­plete, it is ful­ly flex­i­ble to al­low coach­es to pick up mod­ules the fol­low­ing year. Such a li­cense is al­so re­quired to man­age in the UE­FA Cham­pi­ons League or UE­FA Eu­ropa League.

Each cur­rent man­ag­er of a top-flight team in Eu­rope was set a dead­line of 2010 to ac­quire the li­cense, or else face los­ing his post. Among the en­trants for the 2013 course are Rangers cap­tain Lee Mc­Cul­loch, Lat­apy, Dundee man­ag­er Bar­ry Smith, Leeds Unit­ed leg­end Bri­an Deane, now coach of Nor­we­gian side Sarps­borg, and Ever­ton coach Dun­can Fer­gu­son.

The 44-year-old Lat­apy has been in Por­tu­gal do­ing some foot­ball work with FC Por­to since his tenure as na­tion­al team coach end­ed in ear­li­er 2011.

Jim Fleet­ing, the Scot­tish FA Di­rec­tor of Foot­ball De­vel­op­ment, be­lieves the Class of 2013 fur­ther en­hances the rep­u­ta­tion of the Pro Li­cense course.

"Over many years the Scot­tish FA has worked hard and, in­deed, prid­ed it­self on the stan­dard of our Coach Ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme. The UE­FA Pro Li­cense is the jew­el in the crown for those who as­pire to reach the top, but the same prepa­ra­tion goes in­to that course as we put in­to the Chil­dren's Li­cense.

"Our Coach Ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme has been sup­port­ed by some of the great­est coach­es in the world, Sir Alex Fer­gu­son, Mar­cel­lo Lip­pi, Jose Mour­in­ho and Wal­ter Smith, but it is the con­tent that brings such high-cal­i­bre ap­pli­cants every year, es­pe­cial­ly to the Pro Li­cense.

"I am re­al­ly ex­cit­ed by the di­ver­si­ty of coach­es on the course. We are wel­com­ing coach­es from Nor­way, the Caribbean, the Bar­clays Pre­mier League in Eng­land, and from the bur­geon­ing area of women's foot­ball.

"I am sure they will all emerge equipped with the nec­es­sary skills for a ca­reer in coach­ing at the high­est lev­el, in what­ev­er are­na.

"The course has con­tin­ued to evolve and, ac­knowl­edg­ing the glob­al­i­sa­tion of foot­ball, for the first time ever coach­es will re­quire to learn a for­eign lan­guage in or­der to achieve their li­cense.

"In mod­ern foot­ball, the abil­i­ty to trav­el abroad can have an im­pact on a coach's em­ploy­ment prospects.It will be a huge ad­van­tage to those coach­es to be able to speak a sec­ond lan­guage. It shows the com­mit­ment and open-mind­ed­ness of the coach­es that they have em­braced this ad­di­tion to the course."