England legend Rachel Yankey proud of the growth of female involvement across sport

UCFB guest speaker and Lionesses legend Rachel Yankey OBE spoke to UCFB about the incredible growth of female involvement across football.

In both the men’s and women’s game, there have been more and more women going into thriving careers in fields such as sports coaching, sports business and sports media.

At UCFB, many of our female graduates have gone on to achieve incredibly successful careers across the football and wider sports community.

Rachel attended UCFB’s annual Future Leaders Conference held at St George’s Park, which allows students the opportunity to network with industry professionals and learn more about their future career paths.

Joining as part of our guest panel, Rachel was also joined by former England player Matt Upson and current England men’s assistant manager Anthony Barry.

During her time with us at the Home of England, Rachel spoke to us about how great it is to see more and more women coming through UCFB and forging successful careers throughout the sports industry.

“I think it’s great to see the number of women who are starting to come into sport,” she said, “seeing that there are positions and careers available within football and sport for women.

“I think it’s hugely beneficial. For me, I’ve always believed that if we’re going to make the game better, whether it’s the men’s side or the women’s side, diversity really matters.

“Having diverse ways of thinking, having women playing a role in the male game is really important.

“But equally, having females who change the female game, being at the top and leading the game, people who have experience and know what it’s like and how it feels to really push the game on is really important.

“The students who are studying here, the qualifications they’ll get will really give them experience to go on and hopefully change the sport.”

Rachel finished by offering advice to young women wanting to score their career goals in sport.

“Be brave,” she said. “Be brave with your decisions. Get good and being resilient and bouncing back.

“There may be barriers in front of you, but I think if you work hard and believe in what you’re doing, then you can push through them and keep going.”

You can find out more about UCFB’s wide range of sports-related undergraduate degree courses to help you kick off your career in the industry.

Furthermore, view a UCFB prospectus to learn more about our unique courses, campuses and all things student life at UCFB.