Sport and leisure : Typical employers

Big players

Local authorities are the main providers of basic sport and recreation for the local community and in England they manage over 1,500 indoor sports centres. See Local Government Jobs for vacancies in England and Wales and Local Government Jobs ,for Scotland.

Major employers in health and fitness clubs include:

• David Lloyd Leisure - 78 clubs across the UK and Ireland and 10 in Europe.
• Esporta - 55 clubs in the UK. Owns and manages premium racquets and health clubs across the UK.
• Fitness First - the largest health club operator in the UK and Europe with 20,000 staff and 550 clubs worldwide, including 160 clubs in the UK.
• LA Fitness - 88 clubs in the UK and operate a management development programme for staff.
• Living Well - part of the Hilton Group plc. Has 50 clubs throughout the UK and Ireland, employing around 2,000 people, and an overseas network covering Australia, Germany, Turkey, Malta and Brazil.
• Nuffield Proactive Health - the leading UK provider of in-house health and fitness facilities with over 200 locations in the UK. Emphasis is on wellness services, including nutrition, weight management and health and well-being assessments.
• Steiner Leisure Ltd - worldwide opportunities in 175 venues working on cruise ships in gyms and fitness studios.
• Virgin Active - 71 clubs in the UK and 170 worldwide. They aim to open 30 additional clubs in Europe in the next few years.

There are opportunities for graduates from any discipline for trainee and general manager positions in the betting and gambling industry. Large employers include:

• Gala Coral Group - UK market leader in high-volume, low-stakes gaming, with 17,000 employees. Operates 174 bingo clubs, 1,500 Coral betting shops and 28 casinos.  Graduate trainee scheme in bingo club management.
• Ladbrokes plc - owns a network of over 1,900 retail betting shops across the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Italy and Malaysia.
• Rank Group plc - one of the UK’s largest gaming and entertainment companies with over 8,000 employees throughout Europe. Divisions include Mecca Bingo, Grosvenor, Blue Square and Top Rank Espana.

Merlin Entertainment, incorporating the Tussauds Group, is the world’s second largest leisure group with 51 indoor/outdoor themed centres employing 13,000 staff. It operates in the UK, Europe and USA and they offer a graduate training scheme.

The five sport councils of the UK are:

• Sport England;
• Sport Northern Ireland;
• Sport Scotland;
• Sports Council Wales;
• UK Sport

Each council receives grant-in-aid from the government, distributes lottery sports funds and is responsible for the sports development of their respective region. The councils are usually staffed in small numbers by research, administrative and technical personnel.

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs are organisations with less than 250 employees and an annual turnover of no more than £26million. Working for a smaller company can be rewarding because you are more likely to forge a path for yourself within the company, although opportunities to try other departments may be limited.

SMEs are unlikely to use the testing and assessment techniques of larger companies, or follow lengthy recruitment procedures. SMEs are more likely to advertise their vacancies through the local press, university careers service bulletins, local graduate vacancy listings, jobcentres, and word of mouth, rather than rely on their reputation and a presence at graduate recruitment fairs.

Your university careers service should have listings of jobs with small firms.  See also the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Self-employment

Freelance work, although not common, is possible, particularly in personal training and sport performance and psychology.

Find out more about self-employment.