In a week when millions of eyes turned to Birmingham for the first ever UK hosting of the European Athletics Championships, closer to home some enquiring minds also turned away from their study books to give 100% focus to athletics.
Almost 100 students from Birmingham City University (BCU) made memories and built their skills at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships. As the Official University of Birmingham 2026, BCU activated in various ways across the event, including being an important impact partner supporting the Beyond programme.
Two of the pillars of Beyond are to provide community benefit through athletics and running, and to help people to overcome hurdles to drive event accessibility and inclusion. These two pillars included pledges to develop a local athletics workforce and to build and upskill a diverse and representative volunteer workforce. The Beyond plan also aimed to use the platform of the Championships to upskill the local community and give high-value work experience opportunities to 16–25-year-olds in the region.
BCU got fully behind these initiatives and worked collaboratively with Birmingham 2026 to create meaningful opportunities for their students to take on and develop their work-readiness. The result was almost 100 students from the university getting stuck in across the entirety of the event in a variety of capacities: from volunteering in fan zones to paid roles in traffic management and even student Sam Lunt competing in the 4X400m men’s relay team.
In a first for this kind of large-scale sporting event, BCU students also gained incredible real-life experience in a range of bespoke roles co-designed by BCU and the Birmingham 2026 team. Eight students were chosen for the specially created ‘money can’t buy’ opportunities, which were exclusive for BCU students as they had been specifically tailored and created to uplift the BCU student experience.
These roles gave students unique insights and first-hand professional experience into the behind-the-scenes of working on a major international sporting event, including supporting the following teams:
- Team Support
- Operations
- Media Operations
- Social Media
- Commercial
Ethan Sumner, aged 22, studies BA Media Production at Birmingham University, and worked with the social media and photography teams. Of his experience at the Championships, he said: “Working with the social media team has given me great experience of working in the industry, and I’ve learnt so many more new skills. I’ve learnt how much effort and time goes into an event this big and hope I’ll have the opportunity to work in similar events in the future.”
Jacob Tuffield, also 22 and studying BA Media Production, spent the week working with the content team, capturing fan reactions and athlete celebrations for the Birmingham 26 social media channels. He reflected on the opportunity, saying: “I found the whole experience amazing and being able to do something that I enjoy in more of a professional setting was enjoyable. What I have learnt from this opportunity will definitely reflect in my studies and will hopefully allow me to go further in a career in the industry.”
Lloyd Kempson, Social Media Lead for Birmingham 2026, worked with both Ethan and Jacob and said: “There’s always so much to do as a social media team at an event, so it was really great to have two passionate BCU students along to help us out. I know these types of events can be intimidating if you don’t know what to expect, but both Ethan and Jacob really rose to the challenge. Hopefully, they’ve been inspired and the experience helps them with their own careers going forward!”
For more about the Beyond programme, click here.