A background to the blogger

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I’m Thomas Downward, a 21 year old male from the University of Central Lancashire, studying BA (Hons) Sports Studies. I’m currently in my 3rd and final year of study and the pressure is mounting as I complete my most important academic year. My course experiences so far have been excellent, and have enabled me to gain an insight into various sporting career paths, such as, understanding the roles and responsibilities of becoming a PE teacher, or progressing a career in sports business management and marketing, and even looking at personal training and the society of sport.

For my final year of study I have opted to undergo a 60 hour+ sports industry based placement at business of my choice. I decided to choose a career path which has excited me during my modules studied over the past two years, and this is ‘Sports Business Marketing’. Luckily I was given the opportunity to work for a ‘School Sports Partnership’ company in South Ribble, which will offer me the fundamental basics of helping the partnership team promote their company with effective marketing communication strategies, such as social media, website development, media and print. My overall aim for this placement is to primarily gain first class hands-on experience in using sports marketing for a sports-based company, and develop my fundamental business skills and also transferable skills, such as organisation, confidence, communication and team-working skills, which will help contribute into securing a sports marketing job once I graduate from University.

Throughout my time on placement I will use this blog as a place to show off my experiences, either via text, videos, photos or links to related publications, and in addition, I will also critically appraise and analyse my experiences with the use of academic theories and reflection models to help develop my understanding of how the use of reflection can develop my personal and professional attributes and employability assets in future careers in sport.