Engage! adds four recruits in bid to reach over 10,000 young people

An initiative set up to improve lives and communities through the values of rugby has recruited four new members to its team.

The Engage! Coventry initiative has recruited two new roles as it aims to reach more than 10,000 children and young people with its values-based educational and sporting programmes and events, teaching young people life skills and promoting all formats of the game.

The organisation promotes rugby’s core values - teamwork, respect, integrity, enjoyment and discipline – to develop healthy, well-rounded, confident young people, who have greater access to opportunities in their local communities.

Stuart Bird, 29 and Clark McCallum, 22, have joined as Sport Education Co-ordinators.

Stuart joins from the Youth Sport Trust and Clark from Warwickshire County Cricket Club, and both will be supporting Engage!’s strategic and operational delivery across three main areas of work.

This includes values-based educational programmes, delivering Wasps Premiership Rugby programmes and co-ordinating the Coventry’s “City of Rugby” initiative, which aims to make the city a world leader in every level of the sport by 2023.

Engage! has also recruited its first Modern Apprentice Sports Coaches as Oscar Alvey and Jordan Smith join the team from Henley College in Coventry.

Both apprentices will be supporting the range of delivery Engage! undertakes, gaining new qualifications and coaching badges, whilst also learning and developing skills in project and event management, marketing, and communications.

Tom Clift, Programme Manager of Engage! Coventry, said:

The Engage! Coventry initiative has grown quickly in the past 12 months and we have reached more than 6,000 young people.

The aim now is to grow this to 10,000 people and therefore we need to build increased capacity in the team which these new roles will deliver.

Stuart and Clark both have strong experience of working in sport and education as well as working alongside governing bodies.

This will be highly useful as we work alongside partners from around the city and beyond to deliver our programmes.

Oscar and Jordan are our first apprentices and will learn all about the sport of rugby league and union, whilst also gaining numerous coaching qualifications and techniques while continuing their studies.

It’s important that these new team members have the ability to develop a diverse range of skills - including building and developing relationships, marketing, communications and project and event management – and I’m confident we’ve found the right candidates.