A £5m coaching initiative in Scotland, announced in Glasgow yesterday, will increase medal prospects in major championships. Half of the money will go towards employing performance managers or coaches in several sports in order to prepare, competitors up to Great Britain level.

The remainder will target more than 8500 volunteer coaches in 21 sports. The aim is to help them gain the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC). New and existing coaches will be able to undertake these nationally certified courses, with sportscotland subsidising up to 75% of the fees.

The lottery-funded project was unveiled at sportscotland's partners' meeting in Glasgow by Julia Bracewell, who chairs the organisation.

"Quality, experienced coaches working at all levels are fundamental to the success of Scottish sport. It is vital we have a pool of qualified coaches across Scotland to meet current and future demands. We also need to make this a viable career option, helping athletes make the transition from talented competitor to skilled coach.

"Enabling coaches to receive the best training and qualifications will go a long way to ensuring that Scotland has more and better coaches in the future, resulting in an improved quality of experience for participants . . . At this exciting time for high performance sport in Scotland it is also critical that we provide coaches to help our elite athletes realise their medal potential."

Stewart Maxwell, the sports minister who is intent on axing the organisation which Bracewell chairs - a decision is imminent - said: "Good coaching is fundamental to sport. Without it we will not encourage and sustain participation or develop our stars of the future. This investment will help equip our coaches with the skills necessary to deliver our twin ambitions of increasing grassroots participation and having more Scottish athletes competing successfully at higher levels on the world stage."

Caitriona O'Shea, coaching development director at Scottish Gymnastics, said the funding would allow them to start putting in place a professional coaching structure to support coaches and gymnasts on the lead-in to the 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games. "For the first time, we are now in a position to employ three full-time coaches," she said.

Her counterpart at Scottish Swimming, Richard Gordon, added: "This will help us to deliver UKCC across all aquatic disciplines . . . and help us to lock into mainstream education and become part of vocational education in Scotland."

The certificate will be ratified by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The 21 sports benefiting from the coaching investment are athletics, badminton, basketball, canoeing, cricket, cycling, equestrian, football, golf, gymnastics, hockey, judo, netball, rowing, rugby league, rugby union, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis and triathlon.