Student football ambassadors visit Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Two Barking & Dagenham College sports students, who are English College Football Association (ECFA) “Activators” (ambassadors), took part in an exciting development day at Tottenham Stadium.

The development day gave Rafik Mustapha,18 and Heidi Duffy,17, both from Dagenham, the opportunity to work on their skill set, network and find out about furthering their careers in football and sport.

They were given the opportunity to hear from guest speakers, including Careers In Football and members from The FA National Youth Council. The speakers shared their experiences within youth leadership/the wider career pathways in sport and also highlighted just how beneficial volunteering (in roles similar to Activators) can be to achieving their first steps into a preferred career path.

Attendees had the opportunity to reflect on the academic year so far and collaborate with other colleges on what had gone well, and what they may do differently next year to maximise the impact of the ECFA Activator programme at their college.

The event was attended by up to 100 members from across the ECFA Accredited College network.

The students were accompanied by the College’s Women’s Football Apprentice, Kayleigh Heron and Emma Keegan, Sports Centre and Commercial Hire Manager at the College, who explains:

“At college, the students help run football enrichment, encourage students to get active and involved and help coordinate sporting events.

“It was a great day and fantastic to see the students’ confidence grow with lots of new ideas for us to try next term, such as walking football to encourage the less active.”