When Jack Ironside graduated from university in 2007, he had no idea that in just under a year he would be working for one of Europe's top football clubs.

The gooner fan from Norbury applied to the Arsenal Gap Year Programme and for the past year he has been teaching football skills to children in schools from Islington to Indonesia and has just been offered the opportunity to be the club's representative at schools in Germany and Spain.

Jack, 22, said that his first few weeks on the programme were dedicated to training courses in first aid, child protection, refereeing and teaching English as a foreign language. "As my coaching ability and confidence progressed, I took football coaching sessions in the local area," he said.

The second stage of his gap year involved a four-month placement in Indonesia. "They are just football crazy over there, my first introduction to Indonesia was visiting their version of the FA Cup semi-finals, it was manic."

During the course of his stay he coached some of the most enthusiastic, football-mad children he has ever met.

"One of the highlights of the trip was when we went to this small village in Bogor. I don't think that they had seen very many western people there, they did not speak English so that was a challenge," he said.

"They were so welcoming and thrilled to have people from Arsenal with them. We delivered a session on this really poor pitch in the middle of nowhere with mountains in the background. It was amazing!"

Although Jack missed half the football season when he was in Indonesia, he has had some free tickets to see Arsenal matches and said he has met Emmanuel Eboue. "Some of the other gap years have been a bit luckier and managed to meet more of the players, but I am hoping there will be more opportunities to do so in the future."

Jack has been taken on as part-time staff and will be coaching football at camps throughout the summer with an option to represent Arsenal in Germany and Spain after August.

He said: "At the start of this my hopes were to travel and get a good reference. It has been an amazing experience and I just hope to stay on at the club."

For more information on becoming involved in the Gap Year programme for this September please contact Samir Singh on 020 7704 4158 or email him by clicking here