Dominic Ball, 25, of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, came to The Open University (OU) after completing a football apprenticeship. He has now graduated in more ways than one: to professional footballer and, recently, OU scholar, joining the Class of 2020.<\/p>\n
The Queens Park Rangers defensive midfielder successfully completed a BA (Hons) in Business Studies.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been easy juggling work and study, but Dominic was determined to overcome the challenge. Although football has always been his passion, he saw the opportunity to study a degree as a way to prepare for life after the game.<\/p>\n
Dominic explains:<\/p>\n
\u201cMum and dad trained as teachers, so I was always pushed in school. Even when football opportunities came, I was always pushed academically because the average length of a footballer\u2019s career is seven years.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to be in it for seven years now. Hopefully, I\u2019ll be able to play until I\u2019m 35, but most players have to work so I always thought I need to plan for my future.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After completing a BTEC in sport, Dominic\u2019s older brother encouraged him to undertake a degree with the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother had actually started his degree with the OU a couple of years before me. He said that the course was easy to understand and worked well around football.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cWe travel a lot, sometimes twice a week for away games, but even in a hotel room you can do your work. I like the fact that I had the flexibility to get on and do my work on flights or at different clubs but keep up with my workload.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother\u2019s degree was partly funded by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). They provide financial support to young players which is brilliant – it pushes players to do something in education. When it came time for me to do my degree, university fees had gone up but the PFA provided a bursary, which made it a lot more affordable as a young player.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At first Dominic found the course challenging but found his feet in his final year and really excelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, I didn\u2019t engage with my tutors or get involved in the student community, so I struggled for the first half of a six-year course. In one assignment I received 14 out 100 which made me think, I need to understand where I\u2019m going wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cI started to engage with my tutors and other students, it made the experience more enjoyable. In my last year, I finally understood how to structure my essays and assignments \u2013 the penny dropped. I was averaging 70 per cent in my results.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Graduating in lockdown<\/h2>\n
Dominic didn\u2019t experience the traditional graduation ceremony as he completed his degree during lockdown, but it was still a special moment for him and his loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI organised a small celebration at home. I hired a photographer to take photos of me in my robes. It was a special moment \u2013 my girlfriend, my dog, and my mum and dad were there to help me celebrate.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cAll my hard work has paid off, which was a big moment for not only me but also for my parents. I would have loved to go to graduation, but we\u2019ve all missed out on something this year, and I was just pleased to get my degree.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now with a degree under his belt Dominic is hopeful for the future and plans to go into business after football.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is my passion \u2013 I still have dreams of playing in the Premiership. But with my degree, I hope that in time I can set up a business, maybe something to do with football, so that I have a career long after my days on the pitch.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dominic Ball, 25, of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, came to The Open University (OU) after completing a football apprenticeship. He has now graduated in more ways than one: to professional footballer and, recently, OU scholar, joining the Class of 2020. The Queens Park Rangers defensive midfielder successfully completed a BA (Hons) in Business Studies. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18,21],"tags":[874,1525,1640,1643,2146],"class_list":["post-18172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-law","category-student-stories","category-uncategorized","tag-fbl","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-ou-news","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}