THEIR talent and passion for sport has brought two elite WA hockey players an international business opportunity.
Kim Walker and Tate Napier will take part in a business exchange, flying to the Netherlands to spend a year working for the Zernike Group and playing for the first ladies team of the GHHC Groningen Hockey Club, sponsored by Zernike.
The business exchange is the fifth Zernike has been involved in since it started in 1999 but the first that involves a sporting element.
Ms Walker and Ms Napier play in the Australian squad and the Australian development squad respectively and both are welcoming the exchange as an opportunity to not only expand their business horizons, but as a chance to learn more about the game they love.
“I have been working as a horticulturist for the past two years and am considering a career change, and I think this exchange will open my eyes as to what different business careers are available,” Ms Walker said.
Ms Napier, who is studying at the University of WA to become a physical education teacher, said she was looking forward to learning a new style of playing and different aspects of the game.
Exchange project manager Herwin Kloosterman, who selected Ms Napier and Ms Walker in consultation with the WA Hockey Association, said the young women would be given traineeship roles in one of group’s business fields, which included technology transfer, venture capital, patenting and licensing and facility management.
Mr Kloosterman, on exchange from the Netherlands, said Ms Napier and Ms Walker also would have the opportunity to take on coaching roles in GHHC Groningen’s junior teams.
