UCFB/VSI students visit Red Bull Racing HQ to learn about high performance

Several UCFB/VSI students were recently treated to an industry insight visit to Red Bull to learn more about Formula 1 and careers within the motor racing industry.

The students invited onto the trip are currently studying one of our Executive Education courses alongside VSI Executive Education:

• CEO of a Sports Organisation
• MSc Sports Directorship

“Typically, we’ve tended to draw people from football, so by coming into Formula 1, we’ve been able to get that true experience of what elite sport looks like,” said Darren Robinson, the module leader for the students’ High Performance Module.

The aim of the day was to introduce the students, all of whom are currently working within the sports industry alongside their studies, to more theory about high performance within elite sport.

Throughout the day, they took tours of the Milton Keynes-based facility and met with staff at Red Bull, learning about the academic side of high pressure and how they can use that practically in their sports industry careers.

Gerry Strain, an MSc Sports Directorship student and director of football at Hamilton Academical, spoke about the importance of industry insight days such as this.

“There’s a whole multitude of different things that help create an elite environment,” he said, “and the more exposure we get to that as students, the better it can help us impact the performance at our clubs or wherever we’re operating in our day-to-day roles.”

Adding to that, CEO of a Sports Organisation student Monali Patel said: “It’s been really exciting to come to the sports organisation itself and see how they work quite differently.

“Every business is different, as is every sports organisation, and it’s quite nice to hear those differences.”

Another MSc Sports Directorship student, Victor Borode, then spoke about how unique and valuable opportunities such as this are.

“You don’t get this anywhere else,” he said.

“I don’t think you get the opportunities to come to these types of places, and not just to come, but to have a really in-depth conversation with people in charge, being available to the knowledge they’ve got.”

Find out more about the many postgraduate degree course offerings available at UCFB, all of which are tailored to the football and wider sports industry.