COLLEGE STUDENTS BRING FRESH SKILLS TO NUNEATON GRIFF FOOTBALL CLUB

Caption: 3 College students playing football outdoors 2 in a blue top and 1 in a yellow top

A Nuneaton football club is set to benefit from an injection of fresh talent as college students work to help boost its communications and improve its digital and online presence. Nuneaton Griff FC, based at The Pingles Stadium, will also benefit from sports analysis to support coaching as it works to build on its previous success in the Midland League.

Four students of sport, IT, media, journalism at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College (NWSLC) have secured work placements with the club as part of their study programmes. They were brought in when club vice chair, Steve Ryder, contacted the college to seek help with improving its social media channels, creating a new website, and reporting on matches. In addition, a sports student will take on match analysis and provide support for coaching.

The students who have been drafted in to help the club are IT student Aaron Reubens, sport student Eliot Reck-Smith, both based at the college’s Nuneaton Campus, and media students Ryan Maguire and Amelia Wilson, based at the Hinckley Campus.

Steve Ryder said, “Our club has a long heritage within the community and is run on an entirely voluntary basis. I originally joined the club to help boost the junior and youth teams, and over the years, I have seen how ways of engaging with young people has changed. It is also vital that we raise our profile across our network and amongst our supporters, sponsors and partners which include the Football Foundation, the Birmingham County Football Association, Nuneaton Harriers Athletics Club, and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.

“We had the idea of approaching the college to see if the students could help us, and also benefit from the experience of working with a dynamic club that has links across the sports sector. Our volunteers have a wealth of knowledge in running a club which they are keen to share with the students.”

Also volunteering for Nuneaton Griff FC is Steve’s son James Ryder. James played for the club as a boy and his career as a sports analyst started at NWSLC where he studied sport and exercise science before going to university and then working for West Bromwich Albion FC. James is now senior sports performance analyst for the FA in a lead role for the u21 England team. Another former player, Iain Green is now joint manager having played for the club as a boy and started his career writing up match reports for Nuneaton Griff. Iain balances his club role with working as an assistant head teacher.

Steve added, “Hopefully, working with James and Iain and learning from their experiences, as well as those of our joint manager Adam Green and the wider committee, will help our student interns with their courses and their future careers.”

Aaron Reubens said, “As part of my work placement at Nuneaton Griff FC, I have been asked to look at the website and compare it to higher profile clubs to see what I can do to improve it. I plan to use Wix to create a totally new website for the club. This is a great opportunity to experience working in the type of job that I may want to have in the future.”

Eliot Reck-Smith said, “I am looking forward to being able to analyse matches once play is able to start again after lockdown. As well as helping the club with coaching, this experience will also help me with my communication and teamwork skills.”

Helping to co-ordinate the club’s social media will be media, film and TV student Ryan Maguire who said, “I am really excited to be media co-ordinator for the Griff football club. I am very grateful for this opportunity, as it will give me useful work experience. I hope to learn about filming action sports, sports photography, and social media which will help to boost my studies.”

Dawn Helsby, student employability manager at NWSLC said, “We’re grateful to Nuneaton Griff FC for enabling our students to access some interesting and rewarding work experience. Work placements are an important part of study programmes at the college for students aged 16-18. Placements are based on meaningful projects that can take many months, which helps students to gain the maximum benefit and enables organisations to get the most out of their skills. We are always looking for workplace opportunities for our students so if anyone would like some help, please get in touch via ip@nwslc.ac.uk.”

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