College helps ex-footballer to kick off a new career
A former professional footballer, who was forced to quit the game due to injury, is carving out a new career for himself after studying at the College.
Richard Flash was in the same Manchester United youth team as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, before moving on to Watford and then Plymouth Argyle, where he suffered the career-ending injury in a match against Cardiff City in September 1998.
Richard returned to his home city of Birmingham determined to enter the health and fitness industry, and he chose to study at UCB after speaking to other people who had been here.
He now runs the Goals five-a-side football centre in Perry Barr, which opened in January this year.
He said: "I looked at a few options of what and where I could study and chose UCB on advice from people I knew who had previously studied here. Studying management and marketing modules linked to sport and leisure was ideal for me as I wanted to enter the health and fitness industry.
"The teaching was structured to provide the flexibility required for the modules and as the course progressed students were relied on to read journals and articles linked to our specific area of interest."
In his final year, Richard started to work in the College fitness centre, to gain more work experience. He then took an MA in Tourism Business Administration for one year, before joining the NEC Group at the NIA Community Hall Leisure Centre as a full-time supervisor.
From there he moved on to Goals, firstly as assistant manager, then general manager of their Black Country branch, before going to work on the opening of their new Perry Barr centre.
Richard added: "Both my BA and MA have been a great help in shaping my outlook on management, and helped me deal with problems and opportunities that have arisen in my roles at both the NIA and Goals.
"My future plans may involve becoming regional manager for the Midlands with Goals within the next 18 months, moving to open another Goals site in the North West or perhaps moving into lecturing, as I would enjoy sharing the knowledge I have gained in both the public and commercial sectors of sports facility management."