Today I had a team meeting and I asked the usual question about what courses the team members were doing. To my surprise the answers I got back were all prefixed with the word SPORT. Sport management and sports marketing being the two prevalent courses.
It struck me as odd. Why should someone work for three years on a course that is predicated on just one industry? In this case it's sport but it could have been retail, catering or even dung collection. It smacks of putting all your eggs in one basket. A very small basket at that.
Is this really an issue?
Well, to me it is. The world of work changes all the time. A degree that prepares you to work in a number of fields is going to be more valuable than a degree that prepares you just for one. Lets face it, the sports industry could go into a steep decline and leave you flat on your arse. Also, job hunting is currently a very difficult process. It's a buyer's market out there and the recruiters will be looking for any reason to reject your CV at the earliest stage. Applying for a job outside of the sports industry with a degree that puts sport at the heart of three years academic slog isn't going to be very easy. Nor, in my opinion, is it necessary.
Why should anyone want to do a degree in Sports Management? Wouldn't a management degree, perhaps with some sports modules, be far more attractive to a potential employer? It would be the equivalent of a journalism degree that prepares you only to write about David Beckham or currency trading. It's too specific and too narrow.
Those who are taking such degrees might argue that their course contents are much wider than the title of their degree implies. But that isn't going to help when it comes to selling themselves on the job market. Employers aren't going to ask themselves if Mr K, with his Sports Marketing degree, is going to be any use in a trainee position in a firm that specialises in marketing agricultural products. No, the employer will just turn to the next CV. The employer doesn't have to dig into the contents of your course nor bother themselves with how a sports orientated course could be made to adapt to a non-sport based business. I can assure you that they won't.
Perhaps the perceived glamour of sport is behind such narrow degrees? I don't know. If anyone asked for my advice I'd recommend a degree course that could be flexibly applied in many fields because there's one universal factor in the business world and it's “Change.” It happens all the time and if you don't move with it then it will run you over like a steamroller. In a world that can change almost overnight a degree that even hints at you being inflexible and rigid will be as much use as a dose of syphilis.
What a poor simile to conclude with...
ReplyDeleteWell you've clearly never looked at the Sports sector for jobs. There is arguably more demand than ever for people trained and experienced with sport. There's more to sport than David Beckham, but as your old we'll forgive you for thinking that...
ReplyDeleteGenuinely a horrendous point of view.
ReplyDeleteI'm sports marketing, 2years experience in a local marketing agency, specialising in social media, pro-active within the university sports/societies, integral to the 'student-as-producer' project and regularly attending local networking events.
The 'sports' element of a degree is no different from doing 'PR' and marketing? Its merely a combination? We're effectively student-experts in public policy (quite a transferable skill) We do the same management courses as the management students, the same marketing course as the marketing students, advertising, PR, Communications etc.
If you'd like to actually verbally discuss some of this stuff rather than merely bloggig about it to 'all' your readers. You'd probably improve your content.
P.S. let me know if you'd like help with your social media. Its my profile that's driven up your traffic today.
20 - University of Lincoln - Advertising and Marketing student.
ReplyDelete1) I'd recommend getting off your high horse soon to save face if nothing else.
2) you have not done anything with your life or achieved anything that warrants being so arrogant. We'd understand if you'd excelled in an industry, claimed a few accolades for your work or what not; but you're actually a middle aged man, looking to obtain a degree and find a job?
3) I'd imagine the motive behind the majority of your hatred towards younger students is jealousy and bitterness.
4) Have fun leaving university and looking for a job with an advertising or marketing agency - it's a young man's game!
5)Tell me i'm wrong.
your head is bald
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that so many decided to post anonymous comments, most of which are character attacks rather than critiques of the post itself.
ReplyDeleteToo scared to let people know who you actually are?
Apologies on behalf of young people who do not base arguments on slagging people off. Maybe you have a point; maybe you don't. I doubt any valid debate regarding either possibility will be generated here.
ReplyDeleteAs so many people go to uni it can also be a good thing to differentiate yourself and your degree. And I doubt that people who do sports management actually would want to work in another sector than sports, why else would they study it.. Do what you love and you'll go far :)
ReplyDeleteA mature student passing judgement on those mere teenagers who have found the intelligence to commit to a degree so early in life. Ironic.
ReplyDeleteAs a Sports Marketing student I can tell you that it is much more than sport and more an education of various sectors; marketing, advertising and public relations to name a few. This preparation will prove invaluable for most students who at 21 years old will leave UoL with a knowledgeable skillset which is not only applicable to various industries but relevant and current, something you may struggle to grasp with views almost as aged as the typewriter.
I find it hilarious that I do sports business management but one of my modules this year is mass communications for advertising, showing that my degree is as flexible as yours considering you do advertising. When it comes to employability the one thing that stands out for an employer is open mindedness, one thing you clearly lack.
ReplyDeleteErm, aren't law degrees, accountancy degrees, any number of degrees designed to propel students into one industry or another?
ReplyDeleteSo your issue is down to the popularity of sport? Get over it.
Will you even get a job after your degre homie ...what companys going to employ someone where they get 4 years of laber from before u retire
ReplyDeleteMike ...when do you want to bum me next ?
ReplyDeleteSo, do you just have a problem with the popularity of sport then? If so, here's some food for thought: There is probably more money in sport (NFL - American football to you and Football - soccer to be specific) than any other sector or industry at present.
ReplyDeleteIf your peers were studying bald head marketing you'd be loving life. bye.
i also study at the university of lincoln, im doing a law degree, i think u make some gd points, sports management is not beneficial at all, i look down upon all those that do it, literally, i do law on the 3rd floor and they are on the 2nd but in all seriousness it is a joke degree
ReplyDeleteAdvertising and Journalism are 2 different areas. One is selling a product, the other is reporting about events.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you this, if you believe that the sports marketing people are being too specialist, what are you doing then? Because lets be honest, you aren't going to be completley educated in either area. You dont seem to have grasped that half of the modules within the university overlap each other, it is just the 1 different module that makes a degree different.
Im going to suggest in future that unless you fully know what you are about to say, then don't bother, because to be honest, there are more students who are willing to slam this article than agree with it.
Finally, you would be respected more if you actually spoke your opinions, not pratted about writing this silly little blog.
I, along with everyone else who has been offended by this blog, would piss myself laughing at you if you got kicked off your course for this stupid pathetic blog for slagging off students a quarter of your age. Bless you you poor sad man
ReplyDeleteIt is known that all students studying sport probably don't know who the prime minister is either. Sport is not an academic subject. It's an excuse for three years on the lash. What a waste of public money. Couldn't you sports students take a more academic step into medical science? No, I don't mean sports science, I mean real, put-into-action medicine. I guess that's probably enough for your small minds to even comprehend.
ReplyDelete