In 2010 research was published showing that growth of the sports sector in England had outstripped the UK economy and that the number of people with sports related jobs had reached 441,000, nearly 1.8% of all employment in England. Sport and fitness covers a large sector of employment comprising professional, commercial and voluntary sports clubs, leisure centres, swimming pools, gyms and fitness clubs and Stadia. These are run by a variety of Local Authority services, Trusts, private operators and voluntary or community organisations.
The great news for people considering developing a career in this industry is that the workforce has a high proportion of young people working within it - some 24% are in the age range of 16-24.
Golden Decade of Sport
There's never been a better time to consider entering the sports industry. Over the next 10 years we have lots of big events happening in the UK which the government hopes will help establish sport and fitness as a much bigger part of our daily lives and encourage younger people to be more active. Here's a few examples of the main events happening over the next 10 years:
2010
Ryder Cup, Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales
World Lacrosse Championships, Manchester
Women's Rugby World Cup, London
ATP Tennis World Tour finals, The O2, London
2011
World Short-Track Speed Skating Champs, Sheffield
Football Champions' League final, Wembley, London
ATP Tennis World Tour finals, The O2, London
2012
Olympic & Paralympic Games, London
2013
Rugby League World Cup
2014
Commonwealth Games, Glasgow
2015
Rugby Union World Cup
2019
Cricket World Cup
Bidding for:
Super Bowl (2015 or 2017 rumoured)
Football World Cup 2018
Commonwealth Games 2018 (Cardiff, Sheffield or Liverpool).
What Can You Expect?
The average salary after training is between 20k and 35k in the sport and fitness industry. You can expect to have to work shift patterns and weekends in a lot of cases. Working in the industry can offer international opportunities as sport transcends boundaries typically there in other industries. The sports industry is expected to continue to grow at a much faster rate than the rest of the UK economy so domestic opportunities should increase.
Which Sector or Specialisation
There are far more opportunities in the leisure industry than in sports in roughly an 80/20 split. Everyone has heard of the big names in the industry but most clubs and organisations are actually quite small in terms of numbers of employees. This means that you can feel like you're contributing much more than with a small organisation but also that it may be harder to find work initially.
Planning Your Career
An absolute priority has to be to plan your career. Investigate what routes are open to you and think about what is realistic but challenging. You can change your plan as often as you like but you should always have a career plan.
Summary
There's never been a better time to develop a career in the sports industry. With some detailed research and career planning you should be able to carve out your ideal career with the very real possibilities of international travel and working for big brand names.
