The Ladies European Tour (LET) is delighted to be able to announce a new partnership with the Tom Maynard Trust, which will provide support towards the development of a bespoke careers advice service for the tour’s members.
The LET, established in 1978, is Europe’s leading women’s professional golf tour, providing top-level competitive opportunities to top class female golfers. In 2014 the LET established a new Development Department not only to support the growth of golf for women and girls, but also to provide education and career development opportunities to the LET members.
The LET has already made some progress with its emerging member education work, particularly in terms of a new Rookie Orientation Programme and advice on transitioning into a second career. Now, thanks to a grant from the Tom Maynard Trust, attention can be given to another element of the programme, the development of a dual career advice service.
According to the LET’s Director of Development, Mike Round: “We want to be able to provide an appropriate service that will help players to identify their training needs and then source the courses or qualifications that will help them whilst playing on tour or to prepare them for a second career.”
It is an unfortunate reality that women’s professional golf is not as well funded as the men’s side of the game, so the LET’s ability to develop its ideas has been limited.
Mike commented: “In order to be able to turn our ideas into reality, we need more funding so we’re extremely grateful to the Trustees of the Tom Maynard Trust for the grant. The funding will enable us to commission some research so that we can gain a better understanding of the current education levels of the players and their short-term or long-term aspirations. This information will help us to shape and then deliver an effective dual career advice service.”
The research will be carried out by staff from the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme – a unique government-backed partnership which specialises in providing tailored services to elite athletes.
Mike concluded: “Over the next few years, we aim to improve what we are able to offer to our players and the support offered by the Tom Maynard Trust will make it possible for us to move forward with one of the key elements of our member education programme.”
On behalf of the Tom Maynard Trust Mike Fatkin said: “We’re delighted to be expanding the range of sports that we partner with by helping the LET with this new initiative. Ladies’ golf does not attract the same levels of funding as men’s golf and we are also conscious of how difficult it is for the LET to be able to deliver programmes to tour players because of the nature of life on the tournament circuit. We hope our support will enable them to find more effective ways of helping and supporting their players.”
The partnership will run for an initial period of three years.
