Any Graduates Looking For Placments Within The

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I found it interesting to see what example placements are available within the industry.

Courtesy of The Biritish Horseracing Authority website:

From journalism to bookmaking, there are placements on offer in a vast range of areas. Descriptions of the various placements are given below.

How to apply

Applications for the 2008 scheme are now open. If you wish to be considered please send CV and covering letter, indicating your top 3 preferred placements to rbaker@britishhorseracing.com by March 7th 2008.

Example Placements

British Horseracing Authority
The British Horseracing Board (the governing body of British racing) and the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (regulatory authority of British racing) merged in 2007 to become British Horseracing Authority. This placement offers project based work, in a number of different departments. Good communications skills, together with an adaptable attitude are required to optimise this office based placement in London.

Coral Racing
Get real exposure to a whole range of areas in the complex world of bookmaking. Based at their offices in Barking, Essex for this placement you should be great with numbers and have a really strong interest in the bookmaking and/or marketing.

The National Stud
This placement offers a 'hands on' introduction to Thoroughbred breeding at one of Europe's most prestigious studs, based in Newmarket. An excellent opportunity for those wishing to explore the day to day running of a stud at a very practical level.

The Horseracing Betting Levy Board and a Racecourse
This placement enables you to work at the Levy Board in London for two weeks gaining experience in several departments, and six weeks gaining broad racecourse experience based at York Racecourse.

Totesport
A comprehensive placement based in Wigan, likely to include work on a major project, which provides exposure to several of totesport's activities. This placement would best suit those with a real interest in betting and marketing.

PA Sport (a Press Association Group company)
PA Sport are based in Howden, East Yorkshire. This placement will see you researching and writing on a whole range of issues in racing. You'll work from the office and on occasions, on the racecourse. To join us, you’ll need a real knowledge of form and a passion for everything to do with racing.

The Racecourse Association
The RCA is the trade association for British racecourses. This placement, based at their head office in Ascot, will allow you to get some invaluable administrative experience covering a vast range of activities relevant to the management of racecourses. You’ll normally get the chance to do a research and/or analysis project, too.

Jockey Club Racecourses (formerly Racecourse Holdings Trust)
On behalf of The Jockey Club, its parent company, Jockey Club Racecourses manages 13 British racecourses, including Newmarket, Aintree, Epsom and Cheltenham. Very committed to graduate development you will be placed on whichever racecourse can give them, at the time, the broadest experience in the multi-faceted business of managing a racecourse.

The Racing Post
Based in the heart of Canary Wharf at The Racing Post’s modern offices, this placement offers the chance to write for racing’s famous daily newspaper. To gain entry, you’ll need a flexible attitude, an interest in journalism and a good knowledge of horseracing.

Tattersalls
This is a placement for someone with an interest in Thoroughbred pedigrees and sales. It’s a wonderful opportunity to work in one of the world’s greatest auction companies over a period leading up to their premier autumn sales.



Timeform
Timeform is an internationally renowned organisation. Timeform ratings are now widely accepted as the definitive measure of racing merit, and its many publications have become indispensable to thousands of serious punters. Based in its Halifax office in West Yorkshire, this placement will be designed to suit your interests and skills, which must include a good knowledge of horseracing. Your role could be in editorial, marketing or general operations.

Weatherbys
A placement at Weatherbys (based in Wellingborough) enables you to experience first hand the variety of business activities undertaken by this 230 year old private company. Combining tradition, values and integrity with innovation and excellence, its three companies - Weatherbys Thoroughbred, Weatherbys Bank Ltd and Weatherbys Ventures, provide the racing industry with everything from racing administration to banking and financial services in addition to an array of commercial activities.
 
I never graduated at all, so I suppose I don't stand a cat in hell's chance, Venusian! :(
 
It's quite mad imo to restrict these placements to graduates. Most horse- or racing-mad kids get out of school and into horses asap. If they love racing - or gambling! - enough already to make a career out of it, they aren't going to hang about at university for 3 years. They are going to get a job at a yard to learn form the bottom, or work at a bookies.

I can think of several young people who will go far in racing who never went to Uni, and several who would benefit from this kind of placing, inc a few in the various forums. I don't think any of them are graduates.

What's your view on this SL? Chris?
 
I agree with several of the positions them going to the graduates of university, for example the journalist careers and statistical/analyst careers.

However a very good friend of mine, works for the Australian Racing Board (the equivalent of the BHA) as the assistant to the CEO. His job sees him travel all around the world, and he has been to overseas to promote Australian racing, on behalf of the Board. He also does a lot of the statistics and analysing for the Board. Yet his only qualification is he has a High School Diploma. His love of the sport got him through the door.
 
This course has been going on for years - I did it in 1998 (ish).

I think the idea behind the courses was that the racing and its associated industries just weren't attracting graduates in any shape or form and it was trying to rectify this situation.

That isn't to say that non-graduates can't make their way in the industry - they can and they do, but I don't necessarily see why the course shouldn't be restricted to graduates.
 
Firstly I think this scheme more than likely is a good way of the firms involved getting very cheap labour, as most graduate schemes are.

Secondly, I too think it is ridiculous to restrict any job which does not need formal qualifications and/or training to graduates only. Being a graduate only proves that you can live on your parents for another 3 or 4 years, get up late, miss lectures and spend the best part of 3 or 4 years drunk. It does not prove that you can work hard and study, or that you are educated as not all students bother with those minor details.

Some bookmaking firms are now stipulating in adverts for odds compilers and traders that candidates must be of graduate calibre. I think this is ridiculous - I'd hazard a guess that of the best odds compilers and traders around now, probably only half went to university in the first place. I don't think there is much of a substitute for experience myself.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Feb 18 2008, 01:56 PM

Being a graduate only proves that you can live on your parents for another 3 or 4 years, get up late, miss lectures and spend the best part of 3 or 4 years drunk. It does not prove that you can work hard and study, or that you are educated as not all students bother with those minor details.
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Ah, that explains a lot - which degree course did you graduate in, then, Shadz ?
 
Similar to above, Darley's Flying Start graduate programme requires applications in by 22nd Feb. I know someone going through it and it is an absolutely fantastic experience for anyone wanting to get involved in any aspect of the horse racing industry.

Flying Start
 
It's like all these things though - good A level grades don't prove you can do well at University but they are still used in selection procedures for admissions.

I don't see anything wrong with them restricting it to graduates - the fact that many people working in the industry haven't got a degree shows that it isn't the be all and end all...
 
Precisely - but in restricting jobs to graduates they are excluding the vast percentage of people in the industry. It's not necessarily this lot of jobs which is my bugbear but more the way things appear to be heading in any area of employment nowadays - it seems to be leaning the way that unless you have a degree you are unemployable. Which is laughable when you consider that nowadays they have had to dumb down the admittance policies to universities as kids are so badly educated and plenty of them are as good as illiterate.
 
it seems to be leaning the way that unless you have a degree you are unemployable

...but yet half the trading teams at the bookies didn't go to university?
 
Thankfully it is taking time to kick in in the racing industry - as I said, I was talking about employment in general.

The bookmaking industry does seem to be starting to lean that way also, again, as I mentioned before, those words "must be of graduate calibre" are creeping into more and more vacancy advertisements.
 
Well i'm a graduate AND a former jockey (albeit a not very good one!!!) and I got down to an interview for the Darley Flying Start scheme - however I felt they had already chosen the candidates before I got there. I walked into the office and neither the main man ( I forget his name) or his sidekick were very interested in what I had to say - they looked pretty bored slouched in their chairs. I can't understand why they were not impressed by my in-depth experiences of banded racing shrug:: :laughing: It does look an amazing opportunity though. Gutted!!
 
In fairness they only take a dozen people a year worldwide. I'd say getting to the interview stage was no mean achievement.
 
They had 250 applicants that year so I suppose I did ok thanks, but gutted was an under statement cry I did have a guided tour of Dalham Hall Stud I afterwards which was pretty impressive so it wasn't a wasted afternoon!
 
I would echo what Mel said about getting to the interview stage being a feat in itself. That course looks to be a once in a lifetime opportunity, from what I have seen of it..

What qualifications got you to the interview stage (out of curiosity)?
 
I had a BSc in human geography (a first) and had worked in racing for several years, had about 40 or so rides as an apprentice. The Injured Jockeys Fund and the Jockey Employment Training Scheme sponsored my time at university and I would say that it was the fact my name was known in that context that I got an interview rather than my qualifications!!!

I'm doing a PhD now instead, means I can still (just about) fit in riding out most mornings as well as doing my bookish stuff - not quite Darley Flying Start but keeps me quiet!!
 
Interesting thoughts on whether the graduate scheme should be restricted to graduates or not. Personally I think it would be more appropriate to offer such schemes to those who show passion and interest for the industry.

I agree with Shadow Leader that having a degree doesn't prove that you are capable of working hard or up to the job. I have a degree that's not equine based at all and to be honest my grades weren't great because I didn't really study all that hard as I didn't enjoy the course content all that much. I'm pretty sure if I'd studied something I really enjoyed I'd probably been more enthusiastic, worked harder and got better grades. As it is, the work I do isn't affected by the class of degree I got but it just proves that don't always have to be particularly bright to get a degree and sometimes people who don't have one might be much more suitable for the job(s) in question.
 
Originally posted by Epona@Feb 18 2008, 06:23 PM
I had a BSc in human geography ...................
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Altogether now.................oh, the leg-bone's connected to the knee-bone, the knee-bone's connected to the etc etc....................

Restricting adverts to grads means that they have a smaller pool of chinless arses to choose from - it's more manageable that way, and they don't need to bother their time with sifting out the real neds.

For the record, I don't have a degree, and really wish I'd spent 4 years on the sauce at Uni, rather than immediately going out and working for a living. I'm therefore not to be taken too seriously. cry
 
A lot of personnel (sorry we call them human resources these days) departments are basically on the lazy side when it comes to compiling a job description. Their starting point is normally to dig out the old one and simply alter the date and the salary, and give it the odd tweak but essentially their motive is to and try and make as few a changes to it as they can (it's the easiest thing to do afetrall) and sicne you're adopting an existing one, you don't have to set about justifying any significant changes you wish to make. Also the people who compile them aren't necessarily going to sit down and give it tremendous thought, so if faced with an easy option like 'education' it's very easy (and tempting) to put 'degree' into it as they're straight forward to evidence and assess for short-listing purposes, and again, it's not as if anyone's going to challenge your judgement. Afterall there's so many degrees kicking around now people tend to regard them as a bare minimum.

As regards what a degree proves, I'm not totally unsympathetic to Dom's position, but I have to say in my experience there's a distinction that needs to be made betwen the calibre and classification of a degree. Obtaining a 2:2 is relatively straight forward and common sense with a broad knowledge will normally be enough. If that fails you, memory recall in an exam situation will suffice. You don't need to understand what you're writing, just so long as you can get a sequence of facts and words in the right order. A third class (Carol Vorderman and Neil Kinnock I believe?) takes some doing, and far from proving you have ability, (what a degree should do in theory) I tend to think it reflects the fact that you haven't, or that you simply didn't apply yourself one iota.

I'll promise you Dom, in order to get a first, :P unless you're a naturally gifted genius, you have to work bloody hard, often going right through the night and into the morning (my own eyesight never recovered from the 3 years spent couped in shite light doing close up work). You also need to have a high level of ability too, to compliment the application and discipline needed to consistently obtain and go beyond the required level over a sustained period. One moderate mark (mid to lower 60's) is all that is needed to scupper your chances in some cases, and two marks in this kind of territory make it very, very difficult indeed. I'd agree that a stupid and lazy person could get a degree, but don't believe that a stupid and lazy person could get a first. You have to be extremely hard working, or naturally extremely brilliant. It is possible to do it by being one of either, but most of us had to combine elements of both

Outside of cheating, bribery, or forgery the only other way I know of getting a first is to study something in which you already have a considerable advantage by way of knowledge base and access to resources in the first place.

Having said all that, I wouldn't confuse enthusiasm with ability. I've sadly come across plenty of enthusiastic people who simply lack intelligence and ability. Mind you, I'd be lying if I said I'd never come across graduates who are similarly disposed
 
I haven't knocked people who get a first - fair play to them. The majority don't though, and as you seem to suggest some if not a lot of your 2:2s and worse are pretty much a waste of time and required no effort to obtain.
 
Originally posted by Epona@Feb 18 2008, 06:23 PM
I had a BSc in human geography (a first)
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Past tense? Have they stripped you of it??

I'm slightly surprised it wasn't a BA, but I suppose it's one of those subjects that can fall into either camp depending on the predominant content of the course, and the route you take through it.
 
In my day at university, getting a First was quite simply a matter of innate brilliance. You had to work hard too - usually - but without true brilliance you stood no chance of the First.
Very few were given out nationwide, and a first from Oxbridge was truly exceptional [it still is].

Very hard work and a high level of intelligence got you a 2.1
Hard work and average intelligence got you a 2.2 - as did a high level of intelligence, but very little work :rolleyes:

A couple of very very bright guys I knew got Thirds, but this was because they didn't 'play the game'on any level -
they went off on on their own tangents.

I think it's all changed enormously now, and these parameters have ceased to apply
 
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