Madison’s on the Ball with her T Level Industry Placement

Studying a T Level has provided Madison with the opportunity of gaining 315 hours of industry experience and, with having a passion for football, the placement at York City Ladies FC was the perfect fit. 

Beginning her industry placement as a quiet young teen, Madison is now playing a vital role leading on match day events and setting her sights on marketing roles within the football industry.

On her experience of her industry placement, Madison said:

“At the beginning of my work placement with York City Ladies FC, I was so nervous to talk to everyone. Now I feel a lot more confident, it’s a really nice place to be. 

“Running a match day is a vital role and with me taking on this responsibility, it allows the rest of the team to focus on their other duties. Before a match day I create a schedule for the volunteers and organise who I need where and what needs to be set up. Sometimes I do media as well which involves taking notes throughout the game for the match report.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of a football club, it’s such a good community to be in. My dream is to work in football clubs doing the media side of the business. To start off and move up would make me feel like I’ve succeeded in life.”

T Levels, which have been designed with skills and employability in mind, are a post-16 study option and include a mixture of classroom theory and industry experience, and allow students to put into practise skills learned at College into real-life work environments and vice versa. 

Madison explained:

“The time management skills I’ve learnt at College, I’ve been able to apply on my placement. Being able to organise my time means that I can make sure everything gets done during my work placement.

“The biggest challenge that I have overcome at my placement was learning how to do the communications plan. I found it really difficult to start with, but I spent the time and now I find it so much easier. The skills I’m learning on my placement are ones I can use in the future.”

Madison’s work placement doesn’t just see her running match days, she’s also had the opportunity of spending time in the office with the rest of the team working on sponsorship opportunities, marketing initiatives, as well as learning about how the foundation works with local schools. 

She continued:

“When I’m in the office, I plan out what we’re sharing on social media and work on marketing projects such as creating posters and booklets for player sponsorships. I’ve also learnt how to use Canva to create artwork and I’ve used this for social media content such as sporting memories as well as for match day programmes.

“I didn’t realise how much went into running a football club before my placement, particularly the work that goes into liaising with schools. The foundation works with schools and runs sessions at lunchtime and after school. One of my tasks was to identify schools we weren’t currently working with so we could contact them to arrange future work and expand.”

Looking ahead to the future, Madison believes that the industry placement element of the T Level qualification will enhance her employability and now with the experience she has gained at York City Ladies FC, she hopes for her dream career of working for a football club will come to life:

“Working on media projects has made me consider going into marketing in the future. If I had the opportunity to do marketing at York City Ladies FC, I’d love that. My industry placement has inspired me even more to work for a football club and I feel that when people see the experience I have gained, they’ll want to know more about me.”

Paula Stainton, York City Ladies Chairperson and York City Foundation Manager was impressed from the get go with Madison, stating that it was the T Level student’s business related questions that really made her stand out. Paula went on to say:

“When we were interviewing the applicants, we were looking for the X Factor, someone who had something about them and Madison had that. Some of the applicants were really interested in the media side, some were really interested in the football side, but Madison showed interest in the business side. She asked questions about how she could get involved in the business and the finance side of the club, which was something that really sold her to us.

“One of the big things we also wanted was a student who could come in on a match day to boost our staffing as we’re all volunteers on a match day. This has really enabled me to step back a little bit to think more strategically. Madison now takes charge, she’s responsible and when people have been coming to me asking questions, I’ve been able to say, see Madison, she’s got it all in order. She’s been a huge boost to us in terms of woman power.

“Madison has been really open and willing to learn from day one. She’s listened and taken direction and now because of that she now knows as well as I do how to run a match day. She just cracks on and does it and that work ethic is really important to us.”

Reflecting on the experience of taking on a T Level student, Paula shared:

“We would absolutely look at taking on more T Level students. The intention is that with the new students coming through, Madison will support in terms of training. This means that when she finishes her placement, we’ll have one or two more students who are as capable as Madison. Then in the future, hopefully we’ve got a rolling succession plan going. 

“Having a T Level student has been really interesting for us, and we’ve ended up with a great student. It’s given us an opportunity to learn more about education and what students are learning in terms of business. 

Paula’s advice to other businesses considering taking on a T Level student would be:

“I’d say go for it! From our prospective we’ve had to put the time in, but it’s just like recruiting any new member of staff. If you put the right time in with them, in terms of training in the beginning, then you’ll reap all the benefits further down the line, which we are certainly doing.”