Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
PCA puts career transition under the spotlight for fifth consecutive year.
PCA Futures Week is back for a fifth year in succession today, and the initiative will once again shine a spotlight on the area of personal development and career transition among PCA members.
Futures Week is designed for all PCA members, from those at the outset of their career to those who have retired from the professional game. Running from Monday 1 – Sunday 7 November, the initiative will encourage cricketers to consider their second careers and start planning ahead as they look towards the future.
The average age of retirement from the professional game remains at 26, and the PCA has now assisted 268 players into their second careers since 2012. The Association is therefore proud to reaffirm its commitment to supporting players in this area which remains a cornerstone of its industry-leading Personal Development and Welfare Programme (PDWP).
Futures Week 2021 will also see the return of the Futures Conference after one year away, as a Covid-impacted 2020 instead saw PCA members take part in a month-long series of webinars in the Futures Series.
The two-day conference will take place between Tuesday 2 – Wednesday 3 November at the England national football team training centre at St. George’s Park, Burton-upon-Trent. It will see past and present players congregate to hear from guest speakers and take part in group exercises in order to further develop their ideas of where they want to go after cricket.
Throughout Futures Week, the PCA will be releasing a series of interviews with success stories who have done just that, covering a wide range of career paths from property to medicine and everything in between.
This forms part of the PCA’s Futures initiatives, alongside the Futures Awards which reward PCA members who have taken steps towards building a second career. The next Futures Awards, sponsored by Lodders Solicitors for the very first time, are due to take place in Cheltenham in early December.
As soon as any player in England and Wales signs their first professional contract, they become PCA members for life and therefore gain access to the PDWP and the services of the PCA’s seven-strong team of Personal Development Managers (PDMs).
The PDMs play a key role in the organisation and running of all of the Futures initiatives. The programmes join further annual events such as Rookie Camp in helping players throughout their entire cricket journey, from start to finish.
PCA Director of Member Services, Ian Thomas, looks forward to Futures Week: “Supporting current and former professional cricketers as they transition out of the game is a hugely important part of what we do here at the PCA, so we’re delighted to organise Futures Week on behalf of our members for a fifth year in succession.
Photo Credit: LinkedIn profile photo of Ian Thomas
“It is also very exciting to see the return of the Futures Conference, which will no doubt prove invaluable for those in attendance as they learn how to take steps for their futures in an in-person setting.”
Futures Week shines a light on the area of personal development and career transition among PCA members. The two-day Futures Conference forms the centrepiece of the initiative and both are part of the PCA’s Personal Development and Welfare Programme (PDWP). Click here to find out more.
Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
