Le Guével revisits Limehouse Boxing Academy to provide career insights to DiSE boxers

Having visited Limehouse Boxing Academy during Joshua v Helenius fight week back in August, Head of Community Development, Alex Le Guével, revisited the club this afternoon to speak to a group of young people on the England Boxing DiSE Programme, sharing advice and guidance based on his own career journey, alongside a general discussion about careers in the sports industry.

It’s vitally important that the impact of our visits to amateur boxing clubs and other community organisations isn’t short-lived, with a genuine commitment to continued development and support underpinning everything that we do from a community engagement perspective.

The youngsters were full of great questions for Alex, maximising their time with him and explaining some of the potential careers that already interest them.

The Level 3 Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) qualification supports talented and committed young athletes who have realistic potential to be high achievers in their sport. It is the officially endorsed boxing education programme supported and recognised by England Boxing.

With a value of 64 UCAS points, it combines boxing and full-time education so participants have the skills, knowledge and competence to pursue sporting excellence alongside education and a future career.

DiSE offers aspiring boxers aged 16 to 19 the chance to train full-time in boxing while also studying full-time to gain qualifications that will benefit them outside of the ring.

You can study DiSE over two years alongside your school or college’s main study programme and the course is delivered by highly qualified and experienced England Boxing coaches.

There are only 100 places nationally, meaning it is highly competitive for elite-level or potentially elite-level boxers.

Alongside education and sporting development, the DiSE programme also seeks to develop athletes in other areas such as sports science, sports development, elite coaching or sports administration – boxing’s leaders of the future.

Speaking after the event, Le Guével was keen to highlight the varied roles open to young people within the sports industry.

“Often, young people with a keen interest in boxing are somewhat blinkered in terms of the careers they believe are open to them,” he suggested.

“For many, a career as a boxer seems like the only option. Yet we have a richly diverse team at Matchroom, working in roles in areas such as social media, graphic design, content creation, interviews, videography, community development, sports administration, marketing and communications,” he continued.

Whilst offering words of encouragement, he also drew particular attention to the skills and qualities that have helped him in his chosen career.

“I secured my job through a combination of hard work, unwavering self-belief and a refusal to give up on my vision – attributes that I would implore all youngsters to develop,” said Le Guével.

“I would also encourage anyone interested in pursuing a career in sport to never turn down an opportunity for development and to place great importance on building (and maintaining) an extensive professional network.”