Overview

During the Sport Coaching (Hons) course from Hartpury College you’ll focus on developing your skills, learning from real-life experiences designed to give you the expertise to be a sports coach. Our near-professional sports campus is the perfect place for you to build your expertise, ready for your career.

Right from day one, you’ll focus on excellence in sports coaching and meeting industry demands. In your first year, a wide range of modules will give you a good understanding of what’s required to be a successful sports coach. Subjects such as sport and exercise psychology, and sport development and leadership, will help to prepare you for industry. 

Your second year will see you focus your studies in the direction you want to take your coaching career. You’ll become a coaching mentor to a first year student and have the opportunity to gain valuable experience with young athletes and/or children at primary schools.

In your final year you’ll plan and deliver a 12-week coaching programme to apply everything you’ve learnt in a practical setting. Your dissertation will enable you to focus your academic learning on a specialist topic that you want to learn more about. 

This will strengthen your expertise in your chosen area, which you can use to strengthen your coaching practice. You’ll build a diverse portfolio of experience, which you can use to evidence your coaching expertise, experience and philosophy to employers when you graduate.

Industry opportunities

You’ll be encouraged to gain as much coaching experience as possible throughout the duration of your course, to ensure you’re well prepared for your career. We have excellent partnerships with the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union as well as with Active Gloucestershire and Gloucester Athletics. 

You’ll be able to attend our annual Club Night to meet local employers and explore professional opportunities. You’ll also have opportunities to work with our Sports Academy athletes on campus as part of your learning.

Graduate destinations

Our sport graduates work in a range of sport, exercise, health and wellbeing areas at both performance, school and community sports sectors. Studying sport also develops the skills needed for other graduate careers. Recent graduate destinations have included:

• Football Coach, Paris Saint Germain

• Rugby coach, Play Rugby USA

• Rowing coach, Canterbury Christchurch College

• Head of Sport, private school

• Sport Development lead, Young Gloucestershire

• Performance Analyst, Gloucester Rugby