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Good article, and a real shame to read about the situation Scotty Naylor is in. Not a huge surprise though, considering the current state of the economy/job market.

I do think clubs are getting better at ensuring that young players get an education to go with their RL development but players who are in their late 20s/early 30s should take this as a warning.

Best of luck to Naylor for finding work, whether inside or outside of the game.

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Best of luck to our ex player/coach Scott Naylor in his search for a new openning be it back in the greatest game or something new.

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Without education, the vast majority of us are screwed!

Well that's my conclusion after about 8 months of research into the area. I could bore you with the stats and sociolological reasons why, but ultimately my conclusion would be the same.

My advice to Scott would be to cart himself off to his local college and get on an Access to HE course asap. He may have to fight for it though as the funding for mature students has been cut by around 40% this year. (Despite the devastating employment figures of which many are victims off. Especially in towns like Leigh which I presume is categorised as an older declining industrial town.) Bad times but not impossible for the brave!

Sadly, being unemployed or in a poverty-hit area does not mean a person has more right to such education. In theory yes, in practice, no.

There may be a grant if the training is essential to getting a job (e.g. a literacy or numeracy need) or the unemployed person can put on training ([unot education[/u).

Also the education needs to have less than 16 directed hours if JSA is to be paid.

The (soon to be forgotten) LSC funding issues of the last three years are to blame. Also Job Centre Plus are geared into getting a person into work, not developing that person (or even getting a permanent job).

Hmm, ok HR. Some good points here. With the above in mind, what would your advice to a 38 year old male, living in a poor area with little education or appropriate work-related training be?

I think partially due to situations like this there should be a contractual requirement (stipulated by the RFL) for young players to continue to undertake education whilst playing, at minimum to College level and possibly up to degree level.

Sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring isn't the answer.

Many players expect to go into coaching but there are few jobs that pay. Scott I hope is out there offering his services to clubs just to keep his hand in. This is also an issue for the armed forces that lads come out after 22 years and find it difficult to adjust.

Brisbane Broncos appear to have a really good system in operation and have done since their inception, 23 years ago.

The blokes who formed the club recognised that there is a world outside of RL. Their philosophy was that the main aim of the Broncos was to produce good, well rounded, successful men. Not just great RL players.

Each founding member was a business owner. As a matter of course, each one of them offered every player that signs with the club, re-training and a career after RL; whether they break through to the NRL first team team or not.

(I recommend Wayne Bennett's 2nd book, 'The Man in the Mirror', for the Brisbane Broncos philosphy.)

I'm sure that there is a much larger problem similar to this with football players. All chasing glory and coming away eventually not reaching the heights they wanted to and finding themselves on the employment scrap heap with very little cash behind them.

While Its good of clubs to think of their players when it becomes time to retire and offer courses etc.... I don't think it should be expected of them. Surely players should hold some responsibility to ensure they have some form of back up for when their career finishes. After all they can't all be coaches or sky pundits. It's not even like RL is a sport where you are guaranteed to come away with it with plenty of cash in the bank.

Mike has a good idea regarding the junior players. However to expect them all to be of a intellectual level to be able to complete a higher educational course be it college or uni may be a sticking point.

The academy needs to have academic staff to ensure that the players as well as training for Rugby complete qualifications as well.

Or a link with a local college .... which I think we already have?