Julie Harrington is Managing Director at St. George's Park.

In the first of our two part interview, she discusses her role at the national football centre, her involvement with the Football League's new initiative, What's Your Goal? as well as the career opportunities St. George's Park is providing for young people interested in a career in football.

Can you give us an insight into your role and responsibilities at St. George’s Park?

I am the Managing Director of St. George’s Park and my role is about running this facility well so that the football people can come along and enjoy a seamless training experience.

There are two teams here at St. George’s Park.  You have got the people who are in charge of running and administrating the facility and the courses, and then you have also got the football development team who are responsible for the content of those courses and what happens here.

We provide a service for the coaches and coach educators to make sure that everything happens here is spot on from the hotel to the medical facilities to the sports facilities.

You have recently been signed to the Football League’s new initiative, the npower ‘What’s Your Goal?’ Can you explain what this initiative is designed to do?

The Football League along with npower is trying to educate young people that there are lots of ways to work in football.

This year the Football League has got 12 mentors from across different parts of football who can all illustrate the sheer width of careers available to young people in football.

It is a great initiative. It is actually 12 female mentors this year. Even though we will be mentoring boys and girls, we especially want to highlight the importance of women’s football and that there are careers for women in sport.

What will your involvement be?

In my capacity, I will be talking about general business skills that you can use to get involved in a football club or other football facilities to be an administrator but still be close to the sport.

The scheme will run in all secondary schools in the UK and offer the chance for young people, both boys and girls, to apply and shadow us in our workplaces and help them to get their foot in the door in football.

Why do you think it is perceived that it is more challenging for women to forge careers in football and sport in general?

I think, maybe it’s because there aren’t that many women at senior levels providing that role model.

I came from a horse racing background where it was a lot more male dominated than football, but I think there is a perception that football has a lot less women working in it than it actually does.

The FA’s working environment, and here at St. George’s Park, is about 50/50 so I think it is perception rather than reality.

How much will the Olympic legacy help with changing those perceptions?

What was highlighted during the FA150 launch [the celebration of 150 years of The Football Association] was that there was a huge amount of media coverage and national support around the Olympics and yet football over the last 150 years has just been quietly getting on with it.

The sheer number of volunteers in every county in the country and from all backgrounds that are getting involved in football because they love it is fantastic.

I think what FA150 is going to do is it will allow us to shine a light on what is already happening, but also highlight the fact that we will never rest on our laurels.

We still need to keep plugging away and encourage young people to get involved with football and stay in football as well.

In terms of providing opportunities for young people, St. George’s Park launched a successful scheme with the local college to provide apprenticeships opportunities for students each year. Can you explain more about what that involves?

One of the things that make me proud about being involved in St. George’s Park is that we have taken on 250 people in the local community.

But rather than just say ‘here’s 250 jobs’, we have tried to make sure that we are creating opportunities.

We know it is so difficult for young people at the moment in the current economic climate so we are working with Burton and South Derbyshire college on an apprenticeship scheme in which every year a minimum of ten young people are taken on and given the opportunity to get a career.

That’s just one of a number of initiatives we have for young people.

What other initiatives are on offer?

We are also working with Burton and South Derbyshire College to try and empower leadership in young people through football.

We have got a fantastic course which is the ‘Leadership through Football' course. Candidates partake in the first parts of training as a coach which increases their confidence and builds their leadership skills.

The second part of our interview with Julie Harrington will be published on Friday 1 February.