Three years ago, in order to bring the Club and the Trust closer to younger supporters, the Trust launched its Schools’ Initiative.

The Schools’ Initiative has two parts:

1. Pupils have the opportunity, as part of their compulsory Welsh Baccalaureate course, to opt to take on an “Enterprise and Employability Challenge” set by the Trust and approved by the Welsh Joint Education Committee. The Challenge is that they:

“should work together with other pupils in a team of 3-6 members to design and develop an idea to supply a product or service for young fans on match days at Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium in order to improve the experience they have on match days”.

Pupils from schools in three educational authorities have taken up this challenge. Sometimes the whole year group is involved and sometimes just one or two classes. Depending on the numbers involved teachers may have the opportunity to launch the challenge in the stadium’s hospitality boxes overlooking the pitch, followed by a stadium tour. The Trust looks to visit schools while they are working on the challenge in order to provide support and arrange for pupils to display or pitch their finished ideas to players or club legends such as Lee Trundle.

Following the launch of the Challenge to Dwr y Felin pupils, the WJEC tweeted:

“Fantastic day at the launch of the @swanstrust Enterprise and Employability Challenge @dwryfelin. Huge thanks to @Britts7 and @LeeTrundle10 who met with Year 11 pupils to discuss their ideas for a product/service to improve the match day experience of young fans”.

Qualifications Wales chose the Dwr y Felin challenge as an example of good practice and published it as a case study: https://www.qualificationswales.org/english/qualifications/welsh-baccalaureate/case-studies/

The following articles on the club and Supporters’ Trust websites give further insight into the operation of the Challenge with Dwr y Felin and Gowerton schools:

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/leon-and-lee-back-welsh-baccalaureate

and https://www.swanstrust.co.uk/2018/10/17/supporters-trust-schools-initiative-news

and https://www.swanstrust.co.uk/2019/03/15/welsh-baccalaureate-project-goes-live/

2. The Trust arranges for pupils taking GCSE Business Studies or related courses to have a free two hour visit to the stadium and look at the football club as an example of a local business.

Often sitting in a hospitality box overlooking the pitch, they find out and discuss what type of business it is as well as its fixed and variable costs, revenues, cash flow, profitability, financial structure, assets, takeovers etc. This discussion is then reinforced by a tour of the stadium.

If you wish to get your school involved with either part merely contact roger.goodwin@swanstrust.co.uk.

Roger is a retired Director of Post 16 Development for the Swansea Schools’ Consortium and also a past member of the Swans Trust Board

He joined the Trust as a member originally in 2001.  After retirement Roger saw the opportunity to involve the Trust in the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification in schools so that its origins and principles are not forgotten and then became a co-opted Board member between January 2017 and July 2019.