Sports students at Harrow College enjoyed a unique and insightful day at Sky Studios recently which included a question and answer session with Sky Sports Managing Director, Barney Francis.
The session was part of a full day of career related activities held at Sky headquarters in West London organised by Shelley Mitchinson, Sport Course Leader at Harrow College and the Sky Academy – an initiative set up by Sky which uses TV, creativity and sport to help unlock potential in young people.
The day kicked off with students conducting a self-profile questionnaire using keywords to help identify key personality characteristics as well as their careers ambitions – a key theme of the day.
Barney Francis then took to the floor and spoke with students about his days as a youngster, his journey through the education system and his career path leading his current role as Sky Sports Managing Director. He spoke at length about his time at college and university and emphasised the importance of making well informed career decisions, working hard and "shooting for the stars". Barney invited students to ask questions which ranged from students asking about career tips through to advice on careers in sports media. His overall message was a clear one – "to set realistic career goals and then to set out and achieve them".
The day also included a guided tour of the Sky Sports studios, an interactive wall of information giving students an insight into working at Sky and finally a team task where small groups were set a media scheduling challenge for Sky Sports, Sky News and entertainment channel. The teams presented their work and Sky Academy staff awarded groups and individuals with prizes.
Megan Cooper, Senior Programme Leader for Sky Academy helped coordinate the day's activities. She commented "the overall aim of the day is to get students to think about their careers. The day is designed to provide students with an insight of how a sports/media environment is like to be around. This is followed by various activities aimed at equipping students with key employability skills which relate back to the self-profile questionnaire they conduct at the start of the day".
Shelley Mitchinson, Sport Course Leader at Harrow College said "the college has a very good relationship with Sky which is great for our students. The opportunity to meet Barney Francis, to tour the various Sky Sports Studios and to get a feel for life in a sports media environment is invaluable and something our students will benefit a great deal from".
The visit to Sky marked the end of the academic year for Sports students at Harrow College. For some, it marked the end of their studies altogether at Harrow College whilst for others, it was the end of their first year.
For more information about studying sports at Harrow College, click here.