In your first year, you’ll learn the foundations of sports coaching, aspects related to physical activity and sports development and begin to understand more about the wider sports industry. You’ll also learn about national and international sports business management and sports within a global world. To help you settle into University life, you’ll take a module focused on developing the academic skills you need to be a successful student.    

Your second year builds on what you learnt in the first year. You’ll study applied sports coaching, leadership and management of sports events and global perspectives of sports development. The module on research methods helps you to understand the principles and methods that underpin coaching-based research. You’ll be able to use this to critique and understand the research done in the areas of sports coaching. It will also come in handy for your final year dissertation. In addition, we also offer optional modules for you to choose from such as process and practice in high-performance sport, sports ethics, and facilities and funding.   

Work placement/study abroad option*: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or complete a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about, but it will also give your CV a boost. If you would rather go straight to your final year, that’s fine too. You can decide in your second year with us, so there is still plenty of time to think about this.  

In your final year, you’ll be able to develop your research skills in sports coaching through our research dissertation module and focus on a work experience dissertation within the field of sports coaching. You’ll get a personal supervisor to support you with the research and/or work experience dissertation. Here, you’ll design and undertake your own project on a topic relevant to your area of study, and more importantly it will be aligned to a coaching area that interests you. You’ll also be able to study other modules in the final year, and learn in more depth about advanced sports coaching, enterprise and entrepreneurship, and the behaviour change for physical activity. 

Work placement

Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.  

This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought after professional skills.  

Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.

If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it. 

What's next for my career?

Graduates are equipped for a career in coaching for example high performance coaching, multi sport coaching in schools, specialised coaching support roles, coach education, or establishing their own coaching business. They may also progress into high performance coaching roles with elite level teams and athletes. Many of our students work within educational settings or progress onto teacher training through PGCE or schools direct programmes. Students are also equipped for postgraduate study.