East Carolina University (ECU) Tackles Career Readiness With Sports Career Game Plan (SCGP)

The full story:

Background

The East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina. Founded in 1907, ECU is the fourth-largest university in North Carolina. With a student population of over 28,000, the university emphasizes research, innovation, and public service. ECU offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in Sport Management, providing students with a well-rounded combination of theory, practical experience, professional credentials, and research engagement and preparing them for careers across intercollegiate, community, professional, and nonprofit sport sectors.

Opportunities

Stacy Warner, Ph.D., Director of ECU’s Sport and Community Development Lab and Graduate Director of ECU’s Recreation Sciences and Sport Management, was seeking a way to enhance students’ career readiness. She wanted to introduce professional development earlier in the Sport Management program while providing consistent, high-quality content that complements classroom instruction.

Solution

Warner discovered the WorkInSports Sports Career Game Plan (SCGP), an online engaged learning program that helps students stand out and get hired in the sports industry. Used by over 100 schools and universities, SCGP comprises 175+ career advice articles, checklists, worksheets, quizzes, videos, audio content, and interviews, and is broken into five modules: Gaining the RIGHT Experience for Your Sports Career; Building and Maintaining Your Sports Industry Network; Mastering Your Resume, Cover Letter, and Personal Brand; Interviewing for Jobs and Internships in the Sports Industry; and Soft Skills to Move Your Sports Career Forward.

SCGP’s materials are accessible online 24/7 via desktop and mobile devices, and students receive a five-year Premium job seeker membership on the WorkInSports platform. There, they can access thousands of sports jobs and exclusive AI-powered tools and resources to accelerate their careers.

For the past five years, Warner has been incorporating the SCGP’s modules into her curriculum, primarily into the Introduction to Sport Management course.

“The modules are comprehensive and relatable for students,” Warner said. “While I could have brought in industry professionals to speak in class, the WorkInSports modules offered a ready-to-go, structured solution. The affordable price point, combined with the long-term job board access, made it a smart choice.”

Results

Approximately 375 ECU students and counting have completed the SCGP program, and Warner believes it is making them more prepared to tackle their job searches and launch their careers. “At ECU, we place a high emphasis on experiential learning and student success,” she said. “The modules help students think more strategically about their careers and give them tools to act early in their academic program. Interestingly, many of my graduate students have sat in on this undergraduate course and consistently express how much they wish they had access to these modules earlier in their academic journey.”

Warner continued, “I always do final in-person interviews with students and ask them about their biggest takeaways from the modules. It seems like each one of them will reinforce a point from modules that I would have likely missed if I had been doing the lectures myself. For me, it helps me recognize that I am now one step removed from the sport industry, and I don’t necessarily know what our current students don’t know. The industry is changing, and our students are changing at a rapid pace.”

Further, Warner noted that SCGP has benefited her as an educational professional, saving her time so she can focus on mentoring and building rapport with her students faster. “SCGP has created a huge efficiency gain for me,” she said. “I can spend less time lecturing on professional development and more time reinforcing learning, building skills, and connecting with students.”

Looking forward, Warner anticipates continuing to use SCGP. While ECU’s Sport Management curriculum may evolve, SCPG will stay in place.

“Because of our focus on experiential learning, I’m adamant that our students need to have SCGP modules early in their academic program,” Warner concluded.

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