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- Turn your athletic ability into a career
- Opportunities to grow from club to international level
- Can be a stressful career, with time spent away from home
This role is incredibly rewarding, and will allow you to provide help in areas all around the world, providing emergency support to those who need it.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Providing emergency aid like food, shelter and medical supplies
- Organising transport, sorting and handling deliveries
- Overseeing the distribution of goods
- Recruiting, training and organising local people to work as staff and volunteers
- Writing reports, monitoring budgets and doing general admin
- Networking with other organisations and government officials in affected areas
- Working with communities longer term, such as rolling out healthcare or education programmes
- Working on building or engineering projects
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You might be based overseas or in remote rural areas and your working environment could be physically and emotionally challenging.
You'll need
To become an athlete you'll need thoroughness and attention to detail, the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure, patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations, ambition and the desire to succeed, persistence and determination, physical fitness and endurance, the ability to monitor your own performance and that of your colleagues, and physical skills like movement, coordination, dexterity and grace.
The first step is often joining a local athletics club - there are clubs in most areas, and this will give you an opportunity to participate in local events and access support and advice.
If you're aged between 16 and 18, you could do an advanced apprenticeship in sporting excellence (AASE). This is administered by British Athletics and you'll need the support of your school or college to do this.
You could also apply to do a course at university in the usual way through UCAS and join your university's athletics development programme, if available. You may also be able to apply to a university for a sports scholarship, if you've competed at club, regional or national level and have shown the potential to go further.
You may also be able to study for a qualification at college or university as part of the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme. You must be 16 or over, be performing at a high level, and be nominated by your sport's national governing body, UK Athletics.
If you have the potential to perform at national and international Paralympic level, you can apply to join the Paralympic Development Academy.
If you're already competing at a high level, you may be offered an opportunity to join the British Athletics Futures Academy Programme. This aims to help exceptionally talented athletes compete at World Championships, and Olympic and Paralympic Games.
CAREER PROSPECTS
This role is great for developing your own unique career path, working with a variety of organisations in different parts of the world. With experience, you can move into senior management or advisory positions.