Portobello Institute’s sports department has grown exponentially over recent years.
The success of our Sports Therapy degree programme has been at the forefront of that growth. Designed by Dr Susan Giblin in conjunction with London Metropolitan University as the awarding body of the degree, the BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy degree offers students a vast array of opportunities as graduates.
As previously noted, this degree sets students up to apply for Physiotherapy master's degrees at the biggest colleges in Ireland and the UK.
For those who aren’t seeking out a physiotherapy degree and who want to immediately start their careers as sports therapists, this degree affords you the opportunity to set up your own private sports therapy clinic and begin treating patients.
Shannon Byrne was able to find work experience as a sports therapist through Portobello during her course before opening her own clinic within one month of graduating:
“Through the sports therapy course, I actually ended up getting a job in a clinic in Ranelagh. One of the managers from the clinic had put out a post to say she was looking for a student to train and wanted to interview people from the second-year sports therapy course class. I actually applied for that and I got the job there.
I stopped working there in August after I graduated and opened my own clinic. It was during the pandemic, just kind of on a whim. This was supposed to be a goal for like 10 years time.
I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I definitely wanted to work in private practice rather than in a hospital so I had completely turned against the physio option and wanted to do something more like physical therapy or sports therapy to be working in private practice with sports people rather than being in a hospital.”
Shannon has even gone on to offer work experience to current Portobello students and encouraged her own employee to join the Sports Therapy course this year.
Unlike Shannon, Thomas Maher was returning to college as a mature student when he joined Portobello’s Sports Therapy course. Thomas already had his own gym but wanted to gain a better understanding of injuries and offer his clients more options.
“As I have progressed through the three years, I got a more in-depth understanding of anatomy and physiology, I’ve been able to apply that when I needed to. That’s grown my business as well now. I would have a fairly good clientele base at the moment.”
Thomas ultimately decided to close his gym and open a clinic instead. He can now combine his expertise as a personal trainer with his expertise as a sports therapist to diversify his business portfolio.
During their time at Portobello, both Shannon and Thomas were taught by Cathal Brady.
Cathal is one of the leading sports therapy lecturers at Portobello Institute. But if we rewind to 10 years ago, Cathal was a former League of Ireland footballer who was looking for a job that would allow him to never work a day in his life.
“I love helping people prevent injury or recover from injury, whether it is a team member or individual sports enthusiast. If you enjoy your job, you will never work a day in your life.”
After graduating from Portobello, Cathal set up his own clinic which has continuously grown since. He now splits his time between working with clients in his private practice, working with teams and working as a lecturer at Portobello.
Portobello Institute values the one in everyone and understands that education is only a part of your life. We don’t want to take up all of your time and create stress for you. You should go to college to improve your life outside of college and after college.
We are training the sports professionals of the future. If you would like to work in sports in a professional capacity, you can find a course that will provide you with the requisite education to do so.
If you'd like to read more about the sports degrees and qualifications we carry, you can visit the department page here.
If you are interested in any of our sports courses or have any questions you can book a consultation call with our expert sports advisor Sharde Sebastian here, email sharde.sebastian@portobelloinstitute.com or call 01 892 0029.
Featured in this article:
Johanna Shaw has a 2:1 in BSc (Hons) in Sports and Exercise Science from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. She completed an MPhil Studentship in Physical Activity for Health alongside an Exercise Development role. She then went onto a Tackling Inactivity in Students role funded by Sport England within a Further Education College in London before moving back to Dublin to Portobello Institute.
