Published on 02 December 2021
As Sarah Price graduates during the University’s Winter Ceremonies at the Stadium of Light, achieving distinctions in her MBA Senior Leader Apprenticeship, the proud mum says the course helped enhance her skills and knowledge in running her business, Go Well.
Launched 10 years ago by Sarah, 36, alongside business partner Diane Snowsill, Go Well designs and delivers educational programmes that maximise the power of movement to improve wellness, helping children to develop a long-lasting healthy lifestyle, and has gained a strong reputation among education settings across County Durham, Darlington and surrounding areas.
The business, which now has 11 members of the team, works with children, young people and school staff and covers EYFS through to KS4. They also run a PE apprenticeship programme for ages 16+.
While Sarah comes from a background of sports development and exercise sciences, she felt the time was right to develop her leadership skills in business as Go Well grew, and turned to Sunderland after spotting the course on the University’s website.
After spending one day a week on the programme over the last two years part-time, Sarah was able to implement those skills from her modules into Go Well, including a major rebrand.
“Every module I did I focused on an area of the business, which in turn had a massive impact on what we were doing,” says Sarah. “It was only reflecting on the programme that I realised how much I needed it.
“It’s given me such confidence in how I work as a leader, in terms of collaboration and empowering others. I now have the knowledge and skills to do my job more effectively in other areas of business too.”
She added: “Our business has developed through creativity and innovation and keeping our services relevant to the needs of our communities. Movement has become such an important part of everyday life; it underpins so many areas from mental health, physical health to cognitive function; the demands on our services have just grown.”
Sarah, from Chester le-Street, says she now has the confidence behind her to take the Go Well brand across the north-east and beyond, with the business recently landing a contact with a London-based school. Sarah says: “We want to make the world a better place and movement is at the heart of that. Our goal is to positively impact the lives of a million people by 2025, engaging with even more schools, as well as expand our programmes into businesses.”
The Senior Leader Apprenticeship programme explores leadership and leader identity and what that means to each individual in the context of their organisation. The programme incorporates a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Joanne Thirlaway, Apprenticeship Relationship Manager, said: “Higher and degree apprenticeships provide an excellent combination of university and work-based learning. Designed in collaboration with employers, the University of Sunderland apprenticeships provide a wide range of development opportunities for new and existing employees. Our MBA Senior Leader apprenticeship encompasses strategic management skills essential to business growth and helps build leaders of the future.
If you want to find out more about higher and degree apprenticeships visit sunderland.ac.uk/apprenticeships or email apprenticeships@sunderland.ac.uk