Olympic Gold Medallist Jason Gardener MBE speaks at the Sport and Health Sciences Careers Day

As well as his successful career in sport, since retiring Jason has developed as a businessman, a motivational speaker, a coach and a TV commentator. He also works with various sporting organisations like the Youth Sports Trust to encourage young athletes.

The aim of the Careers Day was to let undergraduates and postgraduate students get ideas about what careers they could follow after completing their degrees. Jason, a graduate of Bath University, along with a number of Exeter alumni, had agreed to talk about their careers and be real examples of the variety of jobs that sports scientists can follow.

Using topic headings like Health, Business and Management, Sports Law and Teaching students were able to hear from people with careers as diverse as setting up an on-line business within one year of graduating to working on cardiac rehabilitation.

Keynote speaker Jason Gardener commented:

“I was very happy to tell the students about how I have developed my career since retiring. I have had to think about what I wanted to do and I tried a few things before I learnt what I enjoyed. I hope I have encouraged the students to think about and plan their careers for after their time at University.”

Helen Underwood a third year in SHS gave her enthusiastic view of the event when she said:

“The quality of the speakers at the Careers Day this year was fantastic, with the talks catering for all interests from law to physiotherapy. The opportunity to hear Jason Gardener speak was inspiring, especially hearing about both his experiences as a successful athlete and as a businessman.

The Open Lunch worked really well as it allowed students to interact with the speakers and gain more of an insight into a specific career or company. Overall I feel the day was a huge success, which was reflected in the number of students who attended the talks and asked a number of interesting questions.”

Another comment came from student Brett Richmond who described the day as:

“Informative, fun and priceless…another fantastic event put on by SHS to help its current students engage in getting themselves employed after graduating”

The main organiser, Dr Louise Croft of Sport and Health Sciences said:

“Graduates with Sports Science degrees go into all sectors of employment from working in the City to local hospitals. In addition they work with elite athletes and with a variety of staff in professional sports clubs. The Careers Day is about helping students to realise that they have a great variety of work options and encouraging them to find out more.”

Funding for the day came from the department, the University’s Annual Fund and RELAYS, a London 2012 legacy project.