Progression 09 - The Careers Events

Due to the success of this year’s Manchester-based event, League Football Education (LFE) has announced that ‘Progression 09 – The Careers Events’ will expand to be held in both the North and South of the country.

Progression 09 – The Northern Careers Event will be held at The Sheffield Arena on March 25th/26th. Progression09 - The Southern Careers Event’ will be held at The Madjeski Stadium in Reading on April 9th. These unique recruitment fairs will bring together apprentice and professional athletes from a range of sports with recruiters from various industries as well as training and education organisations.

‘Progression’ was originally developed by LFE as an umbrella strategy to facilitate football Apprentice’s successful exit and progression from the ASE programme. It offers extended playing career options, alternative/complementary careers and routes in to higher/further education. It has now become one of the most important initiatives in the sporting industry, extending beyond football to many other sports.

‘Progression09 - The Careers Events’ are an integral part of the strategy and aim to ensure athletes from a range of sports can find other ways to use their talents and abilities by directly introducing them to higher/further education, training schemes, or employers.

The events embrace athletes who are finishing their apprenticeship or heading for retirement, choosing to stay in sport or take a completely different direction. The 2008 event has already produced employment programmes with companies such as Fitness First and YMCA fit.

LFE chief executive Alan Sykes says: “Each year the sporting world produces hundreds of exceptionally disciplined, dedicated and talented young people who don’t continue to compete as professional athletes but who have a huge amount of valuable skills to offer. Our aim is to ensure these athletes find other ways to use their talents and abilities by introducing them to new training and career paths”.

‘Progression 09 – The Northern Careers Event’ will take place alongside ‘Careers in Sport & Leisure’ (CSL) the UK’s first dedicated careers event for the sport and leisure sectors.

Jonathan Wilson, managing director of event organisers 110 per cent Marketing said: “Running alongside Progression 09 – The Northern Careers Event is fantastic and gives both ourselves, and LFE, a platform to strengthen our core messages.

“CSL is a first for the UK. The event will give focused options for young people who want to pursue careers in the sport and leisure industry. It’s a project that we’ve been designing for some time, the aim of which is to ensure young people have the best career options.”