Ex-footballer has a new goal as a ‘sport maker’
Students at Wilberforce Sixth Form College in Hull are lucky enough to have a former professional footballer as their “sport maker”, one of 150 Lottery-funded roles intended to ensure that all students get the exercise they need.
And the college sounds pretty proud of the appointment of Adam Bolder, a former Hull City and Derby County midfielder. “In Adam we’ve found someone who is a superb role model for young people - an athlete who has achieved at the highest level and has the ability to inspire young people, in the college and the wider community,” said principal David Cooper.
Up to a point, Mr Cooper. Even the most fervent Derby County fans might acknowledge that while their team has many virtues, “playing at the highest level” is not one of them. Still, FErret is a disgruntled fan of Aston Villa, so no expert on top-level football, and Mr Bolder seems to be settling into the job. “Working at a college is very different to being a professional footballer,” he told the local paper, with masterful understatement. Just wait until he sees his first pay packet.
Level 1: how to play games and get a job
“Are online games going to be the next apprenticeship?” asks Fast Company magazine, presumably after playing with its Random Techno-Utopian Headline Generator for a few minutes.
Lots of kids are unemployed and don’t have good work skills, the thinking goes. But they are good at video games. So combine the two and you have a guaranteed smash with Data Entry Simulator Xtreme. But people are serious about this, it seems. Computer simulations are used in some job training, but McKinsey management gurus are proposing going even further and putting video games at the heart of workplace learning.
“Serious-game simulation could become the apprenticeship of the 21st century,” a McKinsey report said. “In a sense, the future of hands-on learning may well be hands-off.” In a sense, the future of up is down. White is the new black, in a sense.
However, Fast Company does bring us the important news that the US Army has its own first-person shooter video game, for recruitment purposes, called America’s Army.
