Lecturer’s Winter School trip helps students warm to sports courses

A University of Northampton lecturer provided a British perspective to students and tutors from around the world at an annual Winter School in Finland.

John Day, lecturer in Sport Development, visited the University of Jyväskylä under the ongoing Erasmus+ agreement between them and University of Northampton.

Undergraduate and postgraduate sport students and their tutors from universities across the globe attended the Winter School. The aim of the school is to provide high-level extra-curricular opportunities for further study in the social sciences and management of sport within an international context and to also participate in winter sports.

Whilst there, the students are given the opportunity to participate in snowboarding, cross country and downhill skiing, ice skating and watch Jyväskylä’s professional ice hockey team play in a competitive fixture, before graduating from the programme at the famous Alvar Aalto Museum.

John Day with Senior Researcher Anna Katriina Salmikangas and (right) going off piste during some down time.

John, whose contribution to the Winter School was to give an overview of how sport functions as a site for both social inclusion and exclusion within British society, said of his experience: “Having the opportunity to represent the University of Northampton and teach such enthusiastic students about British sport at a top international sports University was too good a chance to pass up.

“It was a fantastic experience and my hosts took great care of me by organising a range of social and sporting activities for me to get involved in while I wasn’t teaching”

Ann Pillans, Erasmus & Mobility Officer at the University of Northampton, added: “Feedback about John’s teaching and Erasmus+ experience was excellent and underlines the importance of the programme in enabling our staff, through the Erasmus+ grant, to teach and train at our partner institutions.

“These experiences help to enhance skills and job satisfaction for staff, raise the profile of UN abroad, contribute to the internationalisation of our curriculum and increase the opportunity for future collaborative activity with a range of Erasmus+ partners across Europe”.

For more about the Sport Development and Physical Education course at the University of Northampton, see our website.

Erasmus+ is the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport. UK students and lecturers can apply for opportunities with Erasmus+ to study, work, volunteer, teach and train abroad in participating European countries.