Barnsley College has announced it’s running its own foundation degree in esports coaching and wellbeing.
The new Level 5 undergraduate degree will launch this September at the SciTech Digital Innovation Hub, and will be titled ‘Esports Education: Coaching, Health and Wellbeing Foundation Degree’. It will be validated by Leeds Trinity University.
The qualification aims to ‘develop students’ existing skills and support the development of transferable skills related to esports, sport, health, physical activity and coaching’.
After completing the course students will be able to progress onto a BA (Hons) Top-Up course in September 2024.
Barnsley College says it was the first further education provider of an esports education programme in the UK in 2019, and has been part of the writing team for the Pearson and British Esports Association suite of Esports qualifications.
“Whilst many other esports degrees are centred heavily around business, events or production, our degree has a focus on providing students with access to other careers within the industry and beyond such as teacher, coach, health professional, personal trainer and analyst to name a few.”
Kalam Neale, Barnsley College
Barnsley’s is the latest esports degree course in the UK, joining the likes of Staffordshire University (which was the first to launch an esports degree course here), the University of Chichester (esports) and Confetti Institute/Nottingham Trent University (esports production). There’s also the University of Portsmouth (esports coaching and performance), the University of Roehampton (which has a UK esports scholarship) and Birmingham City University (esports management), among others.
Kalam Neale, sport curriculum leader at Barnsley College, said: “We are very excited to launch our esports degree in September 2022. Esports covers a wide range of careers across media, business and sport and our degree provides students with a broad knowledge base so they can apply and progress in their chosen area.
“We have brand new, internationally recognised, state-of-the-art esports facilities alongside an expert teaching team who are trailblazing esports in education. With the emergence of over 160 approved centres to teach Esports at Level 2 and Level 3, there is now a huge demand for teachers.
“Our degree aims to fill this gap and provide the esports educators of the future. Whilst many other esports degrees are centred heavily around business, events or production, our degree has a focus on providing students with access to other careers within the industry and beyond such as teacher, coach, health professional, personal trainer, analyst, entrepreneur, psychologist, esports development officer and dietitian to name a few.”
There’s more info on the Esports Education: Coaching, Health and Wellbeing Foundation Degree on the Barnsley College website.
Recent UK esports education news
- UK esports organisation Vulpine announces schools initiative
- The Strive Group to run esports and digital skills traineeship courses for young people, partners with LDN UTD
- University of Warwick receives £135,000 to provide esports opportunities to young people in need
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
