Young sports volunteers pitch their ideas

The cream of the region’s young sports volunteers took part in a two day Tees Valley Leadership Academy event hosted at the University on 3 and 4 September.

The Tees Valley Leadership Academy is linked to the Step into Sport programme which enables young volunteers aged from 16 to 19 to grow as leaders and become active sports volunteers within college and sports club settings.

Teesside Business School developed three modules to help the volunteers develop a broad range of skills through the Tees Valley Leadership Academy.

The first module saw the volunteers make Dragon’s Den-style presentations to a panel from the sport and business community to pitch a venture they would like to develop.

The Academy has links with the University’s sports volunteering programme SUNEE (Sport Universities North East England) which aims to enhance student’s employability through sport volunteering opportunities with schools, colleges and socially deprived community groups.

University students mentored the young volunteers during the Academy event. Among them was BA (Hons) Sport Management student James Elliot, who said: ‘Taking part gave me practical experience to complement the theory side of my course. It also provided me with working knowledge of lecturing, which is what I’m interested in as a career.’

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