Dr Michael Malone

PhD Sports Coaching and Sports Psychology, 2018

Tell us about your job and what it involves?

I'm Project Manager for Health and Education at the Dundee Utd Community Trust. It involves a broad range of things including heading up some of the education work. In terms of health we have our walking sports. We’ve started up a walking netball group, which is really growing in numbers. We have a walking football group too, and we’ve also started a women’s only working football group.

There’s a lot to the job, we effectively try to reach a wide range of people in the community.

I really love what I’m doing and I love the team I’m working with too.

How important has the community outreach project become to Dundee Utd?

It’s absolutely huge. We don’t just look at one specific avenue in the community, we work with everyone from nursery age, to people in their nineties with the Still Game project. We try to work with a number of different groups, regardless of age or any sort of barrier.

How did you end up in this job?

My fiancé – who’s now my wife – saw the advert and said that I should go for it. I really liked the opportunity considering I supported the club all my life and that my main sport is football. I liked the look of a lot of the different projects going on, so I went for it and, luckily, I was successful.

How important was your time at Abertay in helping you get to where you are now?

Crucial. I’ve worked very closely with a number of staff, especially my supervisor Ross Lorimer. He’s been a huge help. The way the staff teach at the University is great. The skills I learned at Abertay were really helpful, a lot of them tie into what I do now.

Do you have any advice for our current students?

Make the most of the opportunities when they come, you never know how much they might help you. Also, start your dissertation early. That’s probably one of the best decisions I made. It helped stave off a huge amount of stress.

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