Did anyone's dc do a Sport and Exercise Science degree?

[Thepleasureofyourcompany]

Where did they go and what they are doing now? Did they enjoy it? I'd be grateful to hear as dd is thinking about it. Currently doing PE, RS and Psychology A levels and working at AAB currently. Thanks!

No worries! All advice is the same

Isn’t this about why your daughter finds it appealing?
My friends were interested in sport, but went in to become university lecturers.

Perhaps she will do similarly.

My husband did. He had to intern once he finished his degree and do lots of unpaid work but eventually led to an assistant strength and conditioning coach at a professional cricket club then within 2 years promoted to lead s&c coach at the same club now they're paying for his masters.

My husband now employs his own interns but it's rare to find a good one who commits the time they promise so if ur child is motivated enough to graft and work unpaid then it will pay off.

I’m not trying to be dismissive or say that she shouldn’t do a sports degree. I think it is important that your daughter is fully aware that she is unlikely to find a career in sport, but will still have a massive student debt.

I appreciate that. The vast majority of degrees are not directly vocational and actually sports science is one of the most vocational with modules in anatomy etc making it suitable for health care training, psychology making it suitable for further psychology training, nutrition, coaching. Graduates usually develop excellent inter personal skills as a lot of it is group work. My niece worked in the community as a volunteer as part of her degree. All that makes it quite attractive to some students.

@caringcarer has ur child tried interning or asking to do unpaid work experience? I know edgbaston takes a lot on!

Sorry I thought I'd read DS

Fwiw one of the woman helping currently at ds club is doing the same degree. She's considering specialising in sports physio or psychology afterwards.

What sport does she help and coach in?

My ds is in competitive sport in a uni city that offers sports science degree.

It's not always the sports club or sport that gets you moving on but attaching yourself to a club that has athletes that progress to high level. Because they will look at those coaches and s and c so she's etc who have produced these athletes.

So as ds has developed (now in GB team at worlds this year) his S and C coach (ex GB player in different sport) is getting all sorts of invites from GB to attend training camps etc as they know he's knowledgable. Also their director of sport is also a physio and has been away with GB team as physio previously.

I think there's so much scope to do so much with this type of degree. I agree with above poster that if they are willing to volunteer and gain experience and it helps career progression.

Psychology is massive in sport currently.

My son competes at national level in his sport, and gets free access to sports psychology and nutrition through his national talent program, through Sport England, and through his university. It is also freely available on youtube. There may be top level sports professionals, and clubs, that pay for tailored advice, but most amateur athletes don't.

Unfortunately, we have a higher education system that is driven by student demand for what they find interesting, rather than by employers' demand for skills that are needed. There will always be some demand for sports psychologists, but supply is more than meeting it currently, so most budding sports psychologists will end up doing something else.

Sport is a huge industry in this country. Ditto film and TV (another career path frowned on by mumsnetters).

Yes, it would have been ideal for her financial fututre if dd was great at maths and became an accountant/data scientist/engineer, but she isn't (and could always retrain for the first two if she decided she wanted to later in life).

And I must say ds is doing Philosophy at a top uni much loved by mumsnet and has absolutely no clue career wise - apart from living in a cave thinking, notnsure ehat that prepares you for either (and he needed a string of A stars to get in!)

Mumsnet will give you the opinions your friends and colleagues in real life are thinking, but don't necessarily say. 🙂 Different perspectives can also give you a reality check. But you can of course take them or leave them.

And you're surprised by that? He is another product of the outdated "any degree will do, so long as you find it interesting" mindset.

Oh I don't mind if my friends look down on my dcs choice of degree! Not that my good friends would anyway. And I doubt my dcs would worry about what one of my colleagues would think either.

Which degree are your dcs doing or have done?

Good for him. It is a great degree and I know plenty young men who have utilised it well. One became a teacher, another a paramedic technician, and one who went straight onto a graduate scheme in an unrelated field. Like you said it’s very important he picks something he enjoys and is going to be engaged with for the next three years. Good luck to your son.

Oh and I know two others as well. One became an employment specialist in a community mental health team (it required a degree and good people skills) and the other became a mental health coordinator for our local football championship team, whereby he runs sports programmes for deprived children.

There is currently a huge push on sports/exercise as a therapeutic tool for mental health too which charities utilise. There’s literally loads that he could do.

A colleagues son did one, for a few years after he finished he couldnt find a permanent job but had several small contracts of a few hours a week here and there but it wasnt enough to live off so he subsidised them working PT in ikea. He had various job changes in ikea and eventually gave up with the sport related career dream and now gets a decent enough living working in ikea working on logistics/supply chain type project teams.

@Blanketpolicy

I think that can be representative of any degree to be honest. Well not all, but a lot. There are definitely some young people who think jobs will land on their laps directly after graduating. Personally a tenacious nature alongside a degree that you have enjoyed will open doors for you.

If your dd is thinking of sport psych I would seriously consider a psych degree and and take some coaching qualifications on the side. This will give her a much broader skill set. I’m a mature student who went down this path (just finishing an MSc). I took a psychology masters but was also accepted on a sport and exercise masters. Those on my course who took the sport BSc will have to do a conversion course to qualify as a sport psychologist.
Have a look at the BPS (British psychology society) website. They ran an informative session last Tuesday about how to become a sports psychologist-there should be a recording of it. If not I’d recommend emailing them. You need further training after a masters-it’s a protected title.
Sports psychologists are needed but unfortunately most places don’t have much funding so can’t employ them (it’s also not particularly well paid).
having said that -there is a big push to get girls into STEM and there is funding to promote this and research in this area (for women).

Yes this is something she is thinking of doing

She is enjoying her psychology a level and regrets not taking biology along with it. She chose RS as she got a 9 at gcse but isn't enjoying it at all 😔

There’s quite a strong maths component in the psychology degree-lots of stats, which catches some people out.

Yes sports science is similar. She got a 7 in gcse maths so should be OK.

Honestly, I do wonder whether people posting on this thread actually live with people working in sport – not playing it, that is completely different, but being immersed in it as a professional career.

@Thepleasureofyourcompany you are correct, there are thousands and thousands of jobs in sport, ranging from the already-mentioned physio, sports massage and S&C, to player performance analysis and psychology, to sports nutrition, to coaching and teaching. But on top of that there are governing bodies and organisations you can work for such as the FA, the ECB, the RFU, the BOA, Sport England etc, as well as individual clubs/teams.

Then there's event management, or marketing, PR and comms work (yes OK these might be open to other graduates too, but a sports specialist PR/marketing company is just as likely to hire a sports science graduate and teach them marketing as they are to hire a marketing graduate who needs to acquire in-depth knowledge of one or more sports).

Then there's agency-side work – there are dozens of companies who represent professional athletes, arrange sponsorship deals and media access and organise photo shoots and interviews on an individual level, but also work for brands who are involved in sports sponsorship such as Coke, Mastercard, car marques and so on. Sports science is at least as good a route into these kinds of careers as any other, and better than most.

Sports careers don't typically pay all that well, it's true, but not everyone is motivated primarily by money – particularly our DCs' generation ime – and you can certainly earn a decent living while working in a field you love.