Australian Junior Squads to take part in National Careers Week

Water Polo Australia in partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport, will be delivering key training seminars as part of National Careers Week (18 - 24 May 2020), an annual initiative led by the Career Industry of Australia.

National Careers Week is a great opportunity to share career resources, inspiration and tips to encourage athletes to think about their own career journey.

In 2020, Water Polo Australia’s 16&U National squads will be taking part, participating in three online sessions with Lois Keay-Smith and Michelle Mitchell, two members of the Australian Institute of Sport’s Career Practitioner Referral Network (CPRN).

These sessions are designed to give athletes a broad overview of services available to them including career guidance and planning, skill building, resume and LinkedIn support, as well as fast track career advice and support with education choices.

Water Polo Australia Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement Manager Sharyn Arnold said supporting athletes to continue development and involvement in their education and careers during sport is critical to supporting wellbeing. We are fortunate to have fantastic role models within our alumni and current athlete playing groups who demonstrate that it is possible to successfully combine sport, education and career. They have managed to produce successful performances, results and careers both in and out of the pool. Over the next few weeks we hope to share more of these individual stories with the community.

“For most of our junior Australian squad athletes, they are either in their final years of secondary education or have commenced university. It’s certainly a time when they are making many decisions about their future,” Arnold said.

“Defining clear career and performance goals, then supporting athletes to aspire to both is critical for our athletes and our sport. We do not want our athletes to choose between their sport and career but rather support them to do both. It’s not easy, but it is possible to do both successfully when resources like this are available through WPA, the AIS and our NIN partners.

“Whilst some of them might already have an idea of what career they wish to pursue beyond sport, an understanding of the broad and specialized additional support available and how to access it is critical.

The Australian Junior Team squads have been taking part in online education and training during COVID-19 with a cross section of topics from mentoring with senior coaches and athletes to nutrition and health.  Careers training will form another vital component of their high performance education.