Each year, Coventry City offers a placement to one University student to join the Sky Blues Marketing and Communications team for the season.
This year-long placement is provided for one student who requires a placement as part of their undergraduate degree – called a Sandwich Year Placement.
This year’s placement student has been Kalash Kotasthane, a Sport Management student at Coventry University.
We spoke to Kalash about his experience at the Sky Blues…
Why did you want to work for Coventry City?
I have always aspired to pursue a career in the sports industry and I am a massive football fan. When I had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience at a club the size of Coventry City, it was a no-brainer for me.
What has it been like to be behind the scenes at the Club?
It has been eye-opening, to be honest, just being around the group every day and watching the hard work that goes on at Ryton going into a game is incredible.
What has your role involved?
My role involved a bit of everything really. These are some of the things I did regularly: completing charity and fan requests, collating birthday messages for the scoreboard, transcribing interviews, research tasks, occasionally writing content for the website, creating content for TikTok, helping the Family Zone, filming and editing City Unseen videos and training clips, proof-reading scripts, taking pictures at U-23s games.
What have you enjoyed the most?
The thing I have enjoyed the most is the company at the Club, everyone welcomed me at the Club from the first day and helped me settle in. I never felt like an intern and was surprised with the amount of responsibility I was trusted with by my higher-ups.
Have you learned a lot about how football works?
I have learned plenty of things about how football works and will always look at the sport from a completely different perspective for the rest of my life.
How will the experience at CCFC help your studies?
After my placement I have managed to identify areas that I would like to improve and have a good understanding of what path I want to go on - this helped me massively to choose modules for my final year.
What would you say to any other students looking at a placement in football?
I cannot recommend doing a placement enough, it is a completely different learning experience and you will learn things that can never be learned in a classroom.
Mark Hornby, Head of Marketing and Communications at Coventry City, said:
“Kalash has been a fantastic member of the team since he joined us in September, and is popular with other staff and the players too.
“Every task that he has undertaken he has done with enthusiasm and with very high standards, and he has developed hugely during his time with us.
“We look forward to him joining us again on matchdays next season as an employed member of the team.”
Mark added:
“I first began at the Club as a placement student from Loughborough University in 2009 and giving students like Kalash this opportunity is important to Coventry City, not only in Marketing & Communications but in other areas such as performance analysis, medical and fitness, and many have excelled in their roles in these areas and it is a great addition to their CV.
“The sandwich year provides a brilliant opportunity for students to learn and develop, while contributing to the day-to-day running of the Club.
“We work with Coventry University closely, but other students are able to take advantage of these opportunities too.”
While Sandwich Year placements are limited in number, any placement enquiries for the 2022/23 season can be directed to hr@ccfc.co.uk