Students of the 2016 ESA Diploma received their marks today after successfully completing a 7-month online sponsorship course that runs annually from January to August.
Now in its fifth year, the qualification has seen over 250 candidates awarded the ESA Diploma, and we are delighted to announce that 52 students will be graduating this year. Of those, 5 received Distinction, achieving over 75%, and 23 students received Commended, achieving over 65%.
Peter Raymond, Course Director, commented “This year’s cohort delivered another excellent set of results which reinforces our confidence that the Diploma is building a substantial talent pool that is better trained than ever to meet the demands of our ever-changing and compelling industry.“
Special congratulations are extended to Charlie Dewhurst who achieved top marks in the set brief and was also awarded Top Student. This year is the first time that one student has won both awards.
The 2016 class comprised students from a cross-section of organisations – sponsorship and marketing agencies, brands, rights holders, governing bodies and the charity sector – and included 12 students from Premier League football clubs, 7 from sports governing bodies, 6 from corporate sponsors and 20 from sponsorship agencies.
Each year, ESA surveys the students and their mentors and continues to diligently take on the comments received to ensure that the next course is even better. Students’ feedback include:
- “Overall very positive experience. It allowed me to get insight into sponsorship that I wouldn’t have been able to. “
- “The content has 100% improved my confidence whilst talking about sponsorship to colleagues, peers and stakeholders and given me a more rounded knowledge of the landscape.”
- “The Diploma helped to broaden my learnings outside of the ‘Football bubble’ I work in.”
- “I felt that the Diploma covered not just the complex topics but also the fundamentals extremely well. The readings were a brilliant resource.”
- “IMO the gold standard training course for anybody who wants to work in sponsorship.”
To mark the students’ achievements, a graduation ceremony will be held at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) in London on 18th November.
We’d like to thank all our sponsors for their support of this year’s course – Activative, ICON, the SportBusiness Group, IMR and Sport England.
Enrolment for the 2017 course is open and a special early bird rate is available if payment is received in full by the 4th November 2016. Full details can be found at the ESA Diploma page here.
For further information please contact the ESA Office via esaoffice@sponsorship.org