Sport partnerships
At La Trobe, our major sport partnerships mean we can offer you exclusive opportunities in the world of sport. Whether that’s work experience, applied research, mentorship or a game day experience, you can access it all through our industry connections.
We’re passionate about offering you a wide range of opportunities in the sports industry in Australia. La Trobe University is the proud Higher Education partner for both the Carlton Football Club and Football Victoria, however our industry partnership network extends even further.
Our ongoing ties with major sport organisations across both metropolitan and regional Victoria give you real opportunities to grow your professional networks, get hands-on work experience and secure employment in the sport industry. They also give us (and you) behind-the-scenes access to some of the most iconic sporting venues in Australia.
Offering a wide range of sport related courses in physiology, business and media, we're dedicated to turning your passion for sport into a fulfilling career. Many La Trobe graduates have gone on to become staff at our partner sporting clubs. For instance, the Carlton Football Club and the Northern Football Netball League have employed many La Trobe graduates upon completion of their internship.
But there’s even more to our industry connections. We also collaborate with our partners on research, education pathways and community outreach. We’ve researched topics like ACL injuries in the AFLW, strength and conditioning protocols in Super Rugby and the social value sporting clubs bring to their community.
We believe in working with all kinds of groups – from professional sport organisations to grassroots sport clubs and leagues – to keep our expertise relevant to the entire landscape of sport in Australia. For you, this means getting the most up-to-date sport education you can have while benefiting from our broad network of sport connections.
Major partners
We are the official University partner of the Carlton Football Club.
Since 2016, our partnership has provided exclusive internships for students, game-day experiences for our community, access to industry speakers and collaborative research opportunities.
In 2019, the Carlton College of Sport (powered by La Trobe University) was launched. The College offers a Diploma of Sport Development and Coaching, and a Diploma of Elite Sports Business, with pathways following completion directly to La Trobe.
In 2023, we extended our partnership with the Carlton Football Club for a further five years, ensuring we continue to provide high quality student experience opportunities for years to come.
We are the official higher education partner of Football Victoria (FV), the governing body for Victorian football (soccer).
Football Victoria's new home at the Home of the Matildas within the La Trobe Sports Park precinct will host the state sporting body’s administrative activities, high performance training, development and recovery programs. Not only does the Home of the Matildas provide exceptional facilities for elite sporting teams and grassroots community soccer clubs, but our partnership opens the doors to unique opportunities for our students and researchers in sport science, allied health and sports medicine within Australia’s most popular team sport.
Community Delivery partners
A long-term partner of La Trobe University, the Northern Football League (NFL) conducts Australian Rules football and netball in the northern region of metropolitan Melbourne.
In 2020, We formed a 20-year agreement with the NFNL that provides the league with access to our Sports Stadium. The partnership will enable us to work together to increase opportunities for community sport participation in Melbourne’s North and build real-world industry experiences for students.
Our newly formed partnership with the Bendigo Strikers provides opportunities for women in the regions to compete in the Victorian Netball League at a national level, while also creating opportunities for placements, research and work integrated learning.
In 2024, the Strikers have seven La Trobe University students on their playing roster studying an array of undergraduate courses, in addition to two La Trobe University alumni.
The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER), Victorian Branch (or ACHPER Victoria) is a not-for-profit organisation working towards the state’s education goals.
ACHPER Victoria advocates for the highest quality health and physical education in Victorian schools, and by produces professional teaching and learning materials in collaboration with government, academia and school teachers.
ACHPER Victoria has been based at the La Trobe Sport Park Stadium a tenant since 2021, where it has hosted numerous state-wide Secondary and Primary School conferences for Victoria's PE teaching cohort.
Providing our expertise in exercise science and sport development, we support the development of local children to lead active and healthy lifestyles with the Bendigo Junior Football Club and AFLCV. We welcome the junior league’s teams onto our campus more than 40 times a year, providing the coaches and players with opportunities to learn the latest developments in the game. Our students are embedded within AFLCV, often leading to employment when they graduate.
Supporting young people to achieve their dreams in education and sport is a natural fit with our Bendigo Academy of Sport partnership. Located on the Bendigo campus, the Academy is involved with our leading academic experts and emerging student researchers throughout the university.
In our state-of-the-art strength and conditioning lab, the Academy athletes work with Sports Exercise Science students to learn how to best prepare for elite competition. Two annual scholarships are available to students for academic achievement and commitment to the Academy.
The La Trobe University Bendigo Pioneers women’s and men’s teams compete in the top tier Under 18 AFL competition, the NAB League. The Pioneers teams are based on our campus and are supported with leading research into player development, one-to-one support by exercise science students scholarships to maintain their education and fitness testing to prepare for elite competition.
We're right behind our Women's National Basketball League team, in spirit and in sponsorship. The partnership also provides opportunities for our students to have an internship with the team across a range of courses, from health science to marketing and sport management to human resources.