Work Experience with Scottish Volleyball
Over this week, I had the opportunity to complete my work experience with Scottish Volleyball. It was an amazing and interesting experience that gave me an insight into what happens behind the scenes of a national sporting organisation, from coaching and competitions to funding, to development and event planning.
On my first day, I met Harry Orr from the Development Team and helped him deliver the first part of an ambassador’s course in volleyball at a secondary school. It was great to see what goes into organising and delivering a coaching course. I then spent time in the office, where I sat in on a meeting and had an insight into the planning that goes into sporting events and met the lovely team at Scottish Volleyball. I also helped Tyler Hurdle check Scottish Volleyball members against team sheets to make sure players were eligible to compete in the Scottish Volleyball league.
One of the things I found interesting throughout the week was seeing how much work goes into organising competitions. I got to see the Taraflex flooring being moved between locations, helped organise volleyball kit for different players in the national team, and worked on printing and laminating, with lanyards being attached, for an upcoming competition with Hannah Clark. These tasks gave me a better understanding of how many smaller jobs must come together to make a sporting event happen.
I also had the opportunity to learn more about the development within the schools’ side of Scottish Volleyball. I helped deliver the second half of the ambassador course with Harry and was able to see how much the participants had developed after completing the course. I also spoke to members of the team about their roles, including Ally Jack (Head of Performance) and Blair Pettigrew, the Head of the Development Team. Hearing about their careers and how they got to where they are now which gave me a better understanding of the different career opportunities within sport.
Another highlight was visiting Edinburgh City Council with David Thomson, where I met members of the council’s development team. We discussed how Scottish Volleyball works, how funding is provided to clubs and what clubs plan to use that funding for. It was interesting to learn how different sports are supported through an organisation and how local authorities and SGB’s work together to develop sport within the community.
Throughout the week, I also spoke to David about volleyball clubs and the process they go through when applying for funding. This helped me understand that there is more to developing sport than what you see on the court.
Overall, my work experience with Scottish Volleyball gave me a much better understanding of the amount of work that happens behind the scenes in sport. I enjoyed the most the roles when I was helping Harry deliver the ambassadors course, I also really enjoyed working with David on the development of volleyball clubs in the community.
A big thank you to everyone at Scottish Volleyball for making me feel welcome and giving me the opportunity to gain experience about the different sides of the organisation. And a big thanks to Margaret Ann Fleming MBE for making this work experience possible.
by Jessica Steele (Linlithgow Academy)