UCFB In The Hot Seat: Senior Employability and Career Planning Advisor Simon Fitzjohn

In the latest episode of our In The Hot Seat podcast series, we speak to UCFB Wembley’s Senior Employability and Career Planning Advisor, Simon Fitzjohn.

Simon spoke about the value of the Employability and Career Planning (ECP) Team at both UCFB Wembley and UCFB Manchester, and how it can enhance UCFB students’ lives both during and after their time studying with us.

Simon spoke initially about what Employability and Career Planning is: “The way I say it in a nutshell is that we look after everything other than your degree programme.

“So, other than your lectures, everything else that is about preparing you for life after UCFB.

“The goal of our team is to almost sit down with a student day one and say, ‘Where do you want to be in five years’ time?’ And then over the course of that three- or four-year degree, work with that student to say, ‘Right, this is where you are now, this is where you want to be in five years’ time. What do we need to do to get you there on top of your degree.’

“Because the degree is incredibly important, because that will go on your CV, it shows you’ve built up that knowledge base from studying that particular subject.

“But certainly for an industry like the sports industry, you need that little bit extra in terms of succeeding. By that, I mean industry skills, networking, work experience on your CV.

“Having just a degree on your CV is great, but that probably won’t be enough to get you a job in the sports industry.”

In addition to work experience and enhancing industry skills, the ECP Team also organise extra-curricular trips to sports facilities as well as hosting events and guest speaker sessions, where our students are able to network and hear from experts across the sports industry.

“We run stuff on a weekly basis,” Simon said, “and when you speak to staff or students who are at other universities, the, the level of support and opportunity UCFB students get is way beyond a lot of what other universities offer. Because we literally offer activities on a weekly basis.

“So every week, we will be running some form of activity that is aimed at enriching the students’ experience while they’re with us, because we want a lot of what they do to be fun as well.

“But also, it has to be insightful, it has to be relevant, and there has to be some purpose to it, so, they’ve learnt something in whatever they’ve done that day that is helping them get down that career path.”

Simon finished by saying why working in the ECP Team has been such a special time for him in his own career in sport.

“It’s amazing to have a job where I get up in the morning every day and I look forward to work, you know, because of where I’m working, the industry I’m working in, the fact that in the ECP team, you can have such an impact on people’s lives.”

You can learn more about the UCFB graduates who have gone on to secure roles across the football and sports industry since graduating.

UCFB has many sports media-related degree courses, as well as degrees focusing on fields such as sports business and sports coaching. Find out more about them and take the first step towards your dream career in the industry.