This month, Newcastle College’s Level 3 Sports Coaching and Development students had the exciting opportunity to take part in work experience with Newcastle United Foundation (NUF) in which they were tasked with designing a plan for a one-hour lesson which would be delivered to a class of 25 primary school pupils.
As well as the task, the Teams sessions also aimed to introduce the students to what the Foundation does, and offer a Q&A for learners surrounding job roles in the industry. The students were asked to link their lessons to the national curriculum whilst also considering safety, quality and inclusion for all of the children. They presented their plans to NUF and received valuable feedback from the Foundation.
Student David O'Dowd commented, "Working with Newcastle United Foundation, I have gained my confidence in presentations using my British Sign Language communicator to help me deliver my part of the presentation".
Fellow student Leigh Randall also found the work experience valuable, stating that he “really enjoyed having the experience overall and having feedback on how I could improve for the future, for example learning the gold, silver and bronze approach".
The work experience opportunity was developed as part of an ongoing partnership between the College and Foundation, where the academic teaching from the College is supported with football coaching and practical lessons from NUF.
The relationship with the Foundation, which is managed by Work Experience Coach Scott Gunn, offers a range of benefits to the College's sports students, connecting them with employers and offering opportunities to ask questions relevant to their career aspirations to gain a solid understanding of roles available within a sports club and pathways and routes to get into these roles.
Andy Foster, Programme Manager from NUF supports the ongoing partnership and found the virtual work experience opportunity to be a huge success, commenting: “It was great to see the learners engage so well in both the presentation and the following task. The ideas the students presented back were really good, well presented and demonstrated the learning that had been taken place. I was really impressed with a number of students who would have no trouble working for the Foundation.”