Sports Students Explore South Africa 

Eleven Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Sport students from South Eastern Regional College (SERC) recently returned from their trip to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, fully funded by the Turing Scheme.  

The Turing Scheme provides funding for students to undertake a study or work placement across the world, contributing to the UK Government’s commitment to a Global Britain, by helping organisations such as SERC to enhance existing international links and forge new relationships. The delivery partner for the Turing Scheme is the Department for Education (UK).    

While in South Africa, the sports students collaborated with the charity United Through Sport to deliver fundamental movement sessions and sport-specific PE lessons across a range of local primary schools. They were also invited to run sessions at two orphanages and a community crèche, working with children as young as six months old. Throughout their time coaching in approximately seventeen locations across the townships, the students covered a wide range of sports including tennis, gymnastics, hockey, basketball, netball, rugby, and football. They were accompanied by Phillip McKelvey, SERC Sport Deputy Head of School, and Pauline Watson, SERC Associate Lecturer in Sports Studies.  

Outside of work, the students engaged in a variety of activities. These included dance lessons in which they learnt and performed some local dances, such as the Gumboot dance; going on a tour of townships where they learnt about the history of the local communities and their development since the end of apartheid; surfing and sand-boarding trips to Jeffreys Bay; hiking through the expansive dunes of Sardinia Bay; participating in the King’s Beach Park Run, and sailing along Sundays River to enjoy a BBQ in the expansive dunes of the Alexandria Dune Field. The trip was rounded off with a dinner where the sports students learnt more about some of the local cultures and tribes. 

On the trip, Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Sport student Oscar Hall (18) from Dromore says “From a coaching perspective it was an absolutely amazing experience – the children are strong and very confident with their sporting abilities. That confidence extends to the adults in South Africa as well; everyone just seemed so happy with life – confident in themselves and the life they lead. One of the most important things to me that happened on this trip though was the time I spent with my fellow classmates. It was so interesting talking with them as they have different life experiences to me, and it genuinely changed the way I view a lot in my life.  In the two weeks we were away, I got to know them better than I had in the two years I spent studying with them. Overall, this trip was a really enjoyable and life changing adventure.”