“From taking up cheerleading as a new sport in my first year of university, to becoming a competition team captain in my final year, my time with Bristol Jets Cheerleading Squad has developed my personal and professional skillset in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”
Meet Lia, a final-year Politics and Sociology (BSc) student and a Captain of the Bristol Jets Cheerleading Squad.
Below, Lia talks us through the skills she has learnt as Cheer Captain, how your extracurricular activities can translate into employability skills and the benefits of documenting them on My Skills to articulate how your experience is relevant to the job market.
“Taking up a leadership role in a sport society at university, as so many students do, has enabled me to develop a wide array of transferable skills that I will undoubtedly take with me on my career journey.
1. Management and Leadership
Leading any sporting team involves a lot more work than what meets the eye, and this is especially true with cheerleading.
Choreographing a routine requires a detailed understanding of how exactly to maximise your score, the necessary skills needed to do so, all before finding and managing athletes with the right capabilities to take your team to success.
Obtaining all of these elements is only the beginning of your responsibility as a captain to lead the team to their full potential.
To be a successful cheer captain you must demonstrate the ability to coach, motivate, mentor and lead your team towards the common goal of winning, which are all valuable and transferable to the workplace.
Reflecting on my capabilities by logging them on My Skills has led me to recognise the professional virtue of some of the skills I take for granted and has equipped me with the ability to better articulate them to employers.
2. Effective Communication
Clear, concise, and motivational communication is crucial to our team’s success.
As a captain, I have learned the art of communicating effectively with team members, coaches, and competition judges.
This skill is universally applicable across all professions, where the ability to convey ideas, provide constructive feedback, and foster an environment of open dialogue is paramount. My Skills serves as a platform to showcase these communication skills, detailing specific instances where my communication made a tangible difference.
3. Problem-solving and Adaptability
As is the case with any sport, cheerleading is rarely plain sailing.
With the nature of the sport being quite dangerous, injuries crop up often, which means that contingency planning and being an adaptable problem solver is an essential attribute to possess.
Throughout the season, I have had to think on my feet and make big decisions on behalf of the team to overcome obstacles that have cropped up along the way.
Having a problem-solving mind-set, where challenges are viewed as opportunities to innovate and adapt is a very attractive quality and is highly sought after by employers in today’s dynamic work environments.
4. Project Management and Organisation
Organising fundraisers, planning travel for competitions, and managing training schedules requires meticulous project management and organisational skills.
These tasks mirror the complexities of managing projects in a professional setting, where deadlines, budget constraints, and team coordination play a crucial role in the success of a project.
By detailing these experiences in My Skills, I can effectively demonstrate my capability to manage multi-faceted projects and organize resources efficiently.
5. Collaboration and Teamwork
Of course, the primary skill that you need to be a good cheerleader is the ability to work well in a team. Success is not the effort of one coach, captain or athlete, but the collective work of the entire team.
My time at Bristol Jets has underscored the importance of collaboration, respect for peers, and the ability to work unrelentingly towards a shared goal.
Teamwork is arguably the best attribute to be able to demonstrate to employers today, in a job market where you will almost always be expected to work as a part of a wider team, and by using My Skills, I can showcase specific examples of how I have excelled in collaborative environments.
As my time at Bristol Jets comes to an end, the skills I have developed while being a part of the club I will be sure to take with me.
My Skills has been of great use to me to log the skills and experience I have gained on Jets, and has helped me articulate them in a way that resonates with employers. It provides a structured approach to showcasing your unique capabilities, supported by tangible examples from real-life experiences. As I transition from the cheerleading mat to the professional arena, My Skills stands as a testament to the diverse, transferable skills I bring to any role or industry.”
Don’t forget that if you’re in a student leadership role, you can use it toward the Bristol PLUS Award!
Why use My Skills?
You are developing skills all the time through your studies, extracurricular activities and in your day-to-day life.
Taking time to reflect on your skills, and tracking them in a purposeful way, will help you to develop them and communicate them effectively to others.
To find out more about opportunities to develop skills in sports leadership and volunteering, visit the Sport, Exercise and Health website and explore their Game Changers programme.