Unity Students Strengthen Their Love of Languages and Football During UCFB Trip.
Unity College students of French, Spanish and German were recently lucky enough to spend one of three days at the University College of Football Business (UCFB), situated in the grounds of Turf Moor. This university is the only one in the world to offer business-related degrees in Football Business and as such is a major first for the town of Burnley. We were very excited to be given the opportunity to spend some time there.
After being greeted by the University’s Provost, Philip Wilson and by Paul Fletcher MBE, each day saw the students enjoying every minute of a stadium tour, learning many interesting facts about the football club and even getting the chance to walk through the tunnel itself. The Student Services Manager from UCFB, Mandy Baxter, hosted a session entitled ‘Why Learn a Modern Foreign Language?’ during which students learnt many new and important facts about the advantages an MFL can make to their future career. Under-graduate students from UCFB also gave our Unity students an insight into university life. This was extremely interesting and enlightening as many had never been to a university and furthermore were previously unaware that UCFB offered a unique opportunity to study a degree in football and business, directly on their doorsteps !
The day was packed with many other activities but the highlight for many was the guest appearance of Ben Mee on Thursday. This young Burnley player has previously worked under Sven Goran Eriksson and Roberto Mancini and also been a player in the multi-lingual Manchester City team. He was therefore able to give a fantastic insight into how important an MFL can be in the world of football.
The behaviour and effort of our students was outstanding and the learning which they achieved on the day guarantees that we will look to repeat this very successful event in the future.
