Left to right: Oliver Connolly, Esports Tutor; Connor Everard, Physical Education Specialist at Grassroots Sports Academy; Esports students Beth Lambert and Charlie Shepard; Chris Newton, Managing Director at Grassroots Sports Academy and Enzo Guarini, Esports HE Pathway Leader
Barnsley College and Grassroots Sports Academy’s new partnership has created over 100 work experience placements and job opportunities in esports.
The partnership will give students access to work experience opportunities and career pathways for both current College esports students and the children of Barnsley.
All the work experience opportunities are with Grassroots Sports Academy. They hold clubs in sports including esports provision within primary schools and community clubs, which Barnsley College’s students help to facilitate.
Students will be working on running competitions, clubs and camps throughout the year, leading them to develop and improve their employability skills.
Placements include Coaching the Community, digital up-skilling school students, podcast creation, marketing, competitions, videography and supporting them with other business needs.
For example, there’s a handful doing evening coaching for esports clubs, then another group educating people via Microsoft Education. Typically, every four weeks the students will rotate jobs, ‘allowing them to get a diverse mix of activities to replicate skills needed in the industry’.
“Many are apprehensive about securing work experience in unique industries such as esports. However, our program demonstrates that gaining relevant work experience and enhancing future employability in this sector is not only possible but also thriving.”
Enzo Guarini, Barnsley College University Centre
Grassroots Sports Academy currently employ six esports students: Charlie Sanderson, Charlie Wood, Nicole Shaw, Ethan Jelly, Alfie Caunt and Joshua Lee, who landed a job as an Esports Coach and Co-ordinator with Grassroots Sports Academy.
The college says ‘students have seen their confidence increase from the hands-on experience and have been recognised by some of the professionals in the industry’.
The news comes two years after Barnsley College launched an esports coaching, health and wellbeing degree.
Chris Newton, Managing Director at Grassroots Sports Academy, said: “We have seen a gap in the market around 18 months ago for an esports division and felt the time was right to start pushing this, we have been working away and getting stuff in place to launch this correctly.”
Enzo Guarini, Esports HE Pathway Leader at Barnsley College University Centre, added: “We are truly delighted to offer opportunities that may initially seem daunting. Many are apprehensive about securing work experience in unique industries such as esports. However, our program demonstrates that gaining relevant work experience and enhancing future employability in this sector is not only possible but also thriving.”
Barnsley College offers a number ofesports courses ranging from Level 2 to university-level. There’s more info at www.barnsley.ac.uk/esports.
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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.
