Carlyle Eves, APCE Alumni, shares with us how ACPE helped her change careers and opened the door to coordinating an exciting sports event in Thailand, with Sports Camp Australia. She shares with us what the internship involved and advice on how she tapped into ACPE’s wider resources whilst studying online.
Carlyle, what do you study and how far through your course are you?
Currently I am studying a Bachelor of Sports Business part-time via online correspondence. I have completed one year at ACPE.
What made you decided to study online at ACPE?
My goal was to work within the sporting industry due to my love for all sports. I have had previous experience in managing club based soccer in Gippsland Victoria as a volunteer. I was successful and happy doing it and was seeking a career change. I wanted to work towards moving into the sporting industry and obtain a relevant professional qualification. ACPE was attractive to me due to the networking opportunities and the courses available.
Tell us about how you received your internship?
In my second semester I received an email from ACPE advertising opportunities for work experience. These experiences are provided on Facebook by following Frank Stuart. Within a week my news feed had a post from Frank Stuart showing available job notices for ACPE students. The job as an Intern Event Coordinator at the FOBISIA Games in Thailand immediately got me excited. The advertisement had a contact for Michael McNight and I emailed him. His reply gave me all the information I needed and provided me with details about Sports Camps Australia.
The position required no previous experience; however, dates were provided by Sports Camps Australia for information sessions prior to applying for an interview. I didn’t have a chance to go to the seminar in Sydney, as I live in Melbourne. Instead I researched their website and FOBISIA to give me a chance to answer questions at the interview. I applied and had an interview with Clayton Walker, Event Director for Sports Camps Australia and FOBISIA games. I was asked questions about my previous experience in coordinating events, why I wanted to apply for the internship and what I knew about FOBISIA and Sports Camps Australia. Clayton was really easy to talk to and very calm. His confidence was reassuring as I knew this would be a professional opportunity which would provide a great experience. A week later I received a phone call from Clayton advising me that they’d love for me to join them in Thailand.
Tell us a bit about FOBISIA and the internship opportunity you had there?
FOBISIA is made up of a conglomerate of Asian International schools which compete against each other in a number of activities. Sports Camps Australia have been organising and administering the events for FOBISIA for the past few years.
My internship role was to assist the Event Director for Sports Camps Australia. This included mediating between officials and coaches, maintaining the integrity of the events, time keeping, presenting medals and a lot more. The event was an all-expenses paid experience provided by Sports Camps Australia located at a brilliant sports resort called Thayapura. Thanyapura is located in Phuket Thailand where international schools from Hong Kong, Vietnam, China and other counties meet. The students for the events were very talented and ranged between 11 and 15 years old.
Tell us a bit about your experience?
The internship was a great experience and I would recommend this to any student from ACPE as it gives a great insight to different sporting organizations and how they coordinate a large-scale event.
It was very busy and very rewarding. The students and staff are polite and appreciative of the work you do. This experience helped me further develop some personnel skills in managing a different kind of demographic. While most of the time I was liaising with my Australian counterpart, I would also be required to manage and understand the Thai staff at the resort and their roles.
The internship was an experience over 10 days. There were two groups of schools, each group conduct activities over a three-day period and conclude their time with a formal dinner and dance for the students and teachers. The activities during my experience were swimming, Athletics, Soccer and Basketball. Upon completion of the dinner and dance, the first group leave and the second group of eight schools begin there three days of events.
Do you have any advice for individuals thinking about studying online with ACPE?
My advice for online students is to take advantage of the wider opportunities and experiences ACPE offer. It’s hard as an online student to network with other students, however being proactive and ensuring time is managed efficiently can allow all students to develop their careers further than just study.
