Experience, Competence, and Developing Practitioner Skills – A Personal Reflection on how an On-Site Community Engagement Programme benefits HE Sport Coaching Students

Abstract

Work-based-placements are routinely considered a key element of many universities’ efforts to increase graduate employability. Marrying the academic development of students with success in developing graduate and professional skills, presents challenges in terms of efficiency, development, overseeing meaningful experiential learning, and wider benefits. In this short paper, I reflect on a community engagement (CE) programme at the University of Chichester’s Institute of Sport, and present multiple benefits that I believe have arisen through its implementation. These range from the expected advantages of community collaboration, increasing practitioner/vocational competence and student engagement, to others such as the pragmatic benefit of increasing employability prospects for the students. Of note, reference is made to the way in which other HE staff and programmes could promote similar good practice, and there are a number of key steps (including pitfalls to be avoided) outlined that offer a framework for possible replication.