Work experience – week 8

First task this week was to do my presentation on Tuesday morning. I think this is the aspect of the module that I had been most nervous for because I don’t enjoy public speaking but I  am happy with how it went and glad it has passed.

This week I helped deliver the last session of the archery club at Fallin primary. We structured the session similar to the rest with health and safety reminder, practice and then competition.  This week we pushed the children’s skills a little bit further making the competitions at the end harder than we have in the previous weeks by giving the several target to choose from with varying points. I was obvious that the kids really enjoyed this session and it was obvious that they were sad this was their last session and were quick to ask when we were going to be back to take them for archery or for any other sport.

This archery programme set up by Craig McIntyre at active Stirling feels like it has been a success. Although I don’t know how many of the children are going to look at continuing their archery, I feel like they were a lot more positive and enthusiastic about the idea of us coming back with a new sport to show them in the future.

Work experience – week 7

During week seven I have assisted at the third out of four archery classes at Fallin primary in Stirling.

Last week when during this class there was three of us taking the class so we each watched one of the three groups. My group last week was hard work, so I spent most of the time reiterating the health and safety standards and having to control them. This week was totally different because I was watching a different group who were more relaxed so instead of the focus just being on controlling them, I was able to help them with coaching points and try and help them improve.

It was quite interesting to see how different and more constructive I could be coaching wise as a result of having a less disruptive group. Last week it felt like all my focus was purely on controlling the group which was much more stressful and tiring whereas this week was much easier, and I was able to help with their technique.

I feel like I have probably done just over half of my thirty hours of placement so I am going to have to work hard to catch up on more hours before the end of the semester which will be hard to do because I’m juggling uni, work and rugby training. So look forward to the busy finish to the semester.

Work experience – week 6

This week I was involved in two different work experiences. Firstly, I helped out with the second of four archery classes at Fallin primary. My second work experience was a Boccia festival at the peak in Stirling.

This was my second week helping at the archery class in Fallin primary, the participants were mostly the same as the previous week, which mean they relaxed a bit in our company which was good and bad. It was good because they knew how to use the equipment and about the health a safety but it was bad because they just wanted to get straight into shooting and were more reluctant to listen this week.

My second bit of work experience was at the peak for a Boccia festival. My main job within the festival was to referee several boccia games. This was a fun role but was tricky at times. The festival was for disability children and there was a very varied range of abilities this could be hard at times because some of the games became very one sided, so to help this I just tried to be enthusiastic and compare them against their own ball rather than their opposition.

I feel like I have learnt a bit more again this week, such as helping in a group with varying levels of disability and having to deal with a slightly more disruptive class. I think from this week I’ve learnt that I may need to be stricter in situations where the children have been misbehaving because I think there were a couple of occasions that I was too lenient and It meant they thought the behaviour was ok, so I think I am still finding the balance between fun sports experience and being in charge.

Work experience – week five

during the last two weeks my work experience feels like it is coming together a bit, having  been involved in practical work experience and also my PVG has come through. Both experiences have been outside of my own sport which I have really enjoyed.

My work experience in week four was being an event assistant at the parasport festival in Stirling. All the children at the festival were split into four groups and my role was to assist the leader of one of these groups which involved taking them between several different sport stations and often joining in or helping at the stations. The sports included Boccia, badminton, swimming, climbing, athletics, football and curling. My past coaching experience has all been in my own sport, which is Rugby, so to help in sports which I have no experience was a fun challenge. I think that my lack of knowledge of some sports could have even worked in my favour because I was more excited to learn and join in.

In week five I assisted my adviser Craig in taking an archery class at Fallin primary school in Stirling, in what was the first week of four. Because this was the first class, I didn’t really know what to expect but fortunately Craig gave me a lift to the school and was able to talk me through the rough plan which helped settle some of my nerves. the participants were easy to manage but unlike other sports I’ve helped in I feel like I had to be much more aware to health and safety details and can imagine how difficult this could be to coach either a bigger or more difficult group.

I look forward to next week,

thank you for reading.

Week 3 – work experience

Not dissimilar to the previous two weeks I have been waiting for news of my PVG to go through and am yet to do any practical work experience so again feel like I’ve done a lot of waiting but there has been a bit of light at the end of the tunnel this week.

In my last blog post I wrote about how I had emailed my adviser Craig in order to put my name down for a volunteering opportunity but had done so later on a Friday so hadn’t heard back from him yet. In my comments Romie had advised that if I didn’t hear back from him on Monday is should send a reminder, which is what I ended up doing and he got back to me quickly afterwards. So, I now have my place as an event assistant at the central parasport festival on the 23rd which I am excited about because although I have a bit of experience working in a sports environment I have never been involved in a festival sized event before so am interested in seeing a little bit of what goes on in the background, what it takes to run an event like this one and at this stage I don’t really know what my role will entail but look forward to finding out.

Hopefully by next week I will have my PVG through and will have a little bit more to write about having helped at the parasport festival.

Thanks for reading.

Week 2 – work experience

Similar to last week I have spent this week waiting for my PVG form to be returned so I am able to start my work experience.

We had a class on Friday last week which gave us an insight into how we should look to plan forward when thinking about our careers. This involved us looking back on what we thought were our greatest achievements to date and then planning in stages of one year, three years and five years and thinking what we want to have achieved by those landmarks. My goals for these landmarks were in one year to have my degree, in three years to be living in Australia and in five years be working in a job that is related to my studies. I found this quite hard because I am definitely guilty of being short cited when thinking of my career and definitely spend more time thinking about playing sport and studying than I do about future work. My take from this seminar is that I should start using this tool to look ahead and set myself some goals to aim for and look to do the same thing periodically to see how I am doing or adjust the goals if they become unrealistic.

In the later part of last week, I received an email from Craig my adviser offering a volunteering opportunity to be an event assistant at the central para-sport festival. I have replied saying that I am available to help at this event but did so just before the weekend so am still waiting to hear back from Craig but I am hopeful that I will get to go along to help and see what it is like to work in a sports festival. So i am hopeful to hear back next week.

Work experience – week 1
My first week of work experience has felt as if it started slow because I have not yet started my placement but have spent my time organising my PVG form (Protected vulnerable groups) and meeting my mentor.
I was fortunate that my mentor, Craig, had come in and spoken to the group of us that he is overseeing on two occasions now. The first meeting he gave us a rough overview of what we can expect to do and get out of the work experience. He was enthusiastic about his job, having our help and how helpful it is to have this kind of work experience on our CVs. Meeting him was helpful because he was approachable, so I now feel a lot more comfortable to talk to or email him.
The second meeting with Craig was to organise our PVG forms, he had asked us to bring in documents to aid the process and then stayed to help us all fill out the forms correctly. It was good to go through this process with help because now I feel in the future if I need to do it again I could on my own.

I now must wait for about two weeks before my PVG is updated at which point Craig will get back in touch to give us volunteering opportunities. Once I know the timings for the different opportunities, I will have to see which one suits me best and which one fits into my current timetable of study, rugby training and work.

Overall in the first week I haven’t gained the kind of experience that I had expected to, with my preconception being that we would have just been thrown into work but I did get practice communicating with my adviser in person and via email as well as practice having to chase up my PVG information