7 May 2013
Two Bournemouth University placement students have been praised for their effort in the running of a lower league football club.
Chris Sherwood and Andy O'Reilly are currently on placement at Dagenham and Redbridge FC from Bournemouth University and 'Daggers' Managing Director Steve Thompson has been full of praise for the BU duo.
Steve Thompson said, "[the placements have] allowed us to bring in bright, young, enthusiastic students who bring fresh ideas and who have a level of skill that perhaps we wouldn't get if we were to employ somebody on that wage. They tend to be more computer literate and social media savvy."
The two students have taken on different roles at the football club; Chris has taken responsibility for the club's website and match day programme while Andy looks after the ticket office and club shop.
Again, Steve Thompson said, "Chris looks after our website and writes articles for the website and does interviews on the players section of the website. He films interviews with players and management staff three or four times a week. He is also responsible for a lot of the content on the match day programme."
The students are always encouraged to come up with new ideas, as Steve explains, "Andy O'Reilly, who is in the ticket office and club shop, has come up with new products for the shop, which he has sourced and we have designed and they are on sale in the club shop."
This is not the first time that Dagenham and Redbridge FC have taken placement students from BU either, and the football club has a great track record on providing students with the skills they need to go into employment. Steve continued, "We are pleased with the record that everyone who has come on placement with us has got a job straight after leaving university.
"The first year in the Football League we had a student who still works with us part time on a match day in the hospitality department. The third year, when we were in League One, we had a student who, when he graduated, we took on full time and he is now our Commercial Manager. The fourth year we had two lads who graduated last summer; one of them, through our connections, has got a job in the media department at Millwall FC and the other lad got a job as in analysis for the Bank of England."
Chris and Andy were also praised when Steve Thompson was interviewed by the BBC a few months ago on the subject of finances at Dagenham and Redbridge – for more information you can read the BBC Story.
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