Gemma Hallett

Gemma Hallett

Date of birth	(1981-08-24) 24 August 1981
Place of birth	Pontypridd
Height	5'11
Weight	88kg
School	Ysgol Gyfun Llanharry
University	University of Central Lancashire
Occupation(s)	miFuture Group Founder
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Second Row, Number 8
Amateur clubs
Years	Club / team
2001–2005 2002–2014 2004 2010–2014 2005 2011 2014 2014	UCLAN & Preston Pontyclun Falcons Wales Student & Wales A Cardiff Blues Sydney Eastern Suburbs Stoke NewZealand Cardiff Blues Select Nomads
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2006 - 2013	Wales	35	5
Official website
http://www.mifuturegroup.co.uk

Gemma Hallett (born 24 August 1981) is a Welsh rugby union player who has played second row and capped 35 times for Wales.

Gemma started her international career making her appearance in the Welsh Students squad of 2004 coached by Nadine Griffiths, Hallett along with scrum half Laura Prosser were selected to join the Welsh Development team where they played in fixtures against England A. Both Hallett and Prosser were late call up injury replacements for injured Mellissa Berry and Beth Gallacher for the national squad tour of South Africa in the summer of 2004.^[1] Hallett came off the bench to earn her first taste of senior international rugby to face Eastern Province.^[2]

She was part of the Welsh team that won the Triple Crown in 2009 and was involved in the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup.^[3]

Since retiring from rugby Gemma has also been a Sky Sports pundit for the 2014 Rugby World Cup and commentator for the 2015 Women's Six Nations

A former college lecturer, she founded miFuture in 2015 which aims to reinvent the recruitment process for young adults.^[4]

Rugby career

Early Years

After impressing then coach Nadine Griffiths for the Welsh students squad whilst in university, Hallett was invited to join the tour to South Africa in 2004. It is during this time a desire to play for the National squad took hold.

In 2005 following her graduation, she embarked on a season playing in Australia for Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. She enjoyed a season of running rugby where she played at no8.

Following her return to Wales, and a switch of positions to second row, she made her full Wales International debut earning her first cap against Italy in the Autumn of 2006 at Cardiff's Glamorgan Wonderers ground.

She scored her only try against Sweden in November 2009.^[5]

Hallett became a regular international from 2006-2010 where she earned 30 caps, involved in each squad, missing two games through injury during 2008.^[6]

Hallett played a key role starting in all of Wales's World Cup games during England 2010. A tournament which saw her struggling with an allergic reaction to the antibiotics she was taking to combat a viral infection. She was ordered to bed rest for the days in between matches during the later part of the tournament.^[7]

This tournament was said to be her last as she retired from the sport. Yet during her travels and blogging for the WRU ^[8] following the 2010 World Cup Hallett found herself playing for Nelson, New Zealand. Playing in every game and thoroughly enjoying the expansive rugby, and learning new skills back at no. 8 she helped Nelson secure a top the league finish in 2011.^[9]

Return to Wales

Having a renewed passion for the game Hallett returned to Wales and her Welsh club Pontyclun ^[10] to continue playing one more season at amateur level. Following a series of good performances, echoing the style she had enjoyed in New Zealand, she captured the eyes of Regional and National coaches and was called back into the National set up.^[11][12] She was made Vice Captain for the 2013 Six Nations squad and captained the team in their warm up fixtures and game against France for the injured skipper Rachel Taylor.^[13] Her last game for Wales was the final 6 nations games against England that year.

The same season Hallett was named Premiership Player of The Year at the annual WRU women's dinner, where she was presented with a trophy by one of her playing idols; Scott Quinnell.^[14]

Hallett also captained the Cardiff Blues squad in 2012 and 2013 campaigns. In 2013, she made history in being the first woman to captain a Cardiff Blues side at the Cardiff Arms Park. During this campaign she led the Blues team to be regional champions after a thrilling match against the Ospreys.^[15] She openly expressed this as one of her proudest rugby moments.^[16]

Overlooked by Wales

After her most successful season in rugby Hallett was unceremoniously dumped from the Welsh squad and failed to make Rhys Edwards' 2014 Six Nations squad due to what seemed to be a difference in opinion with the coaching staff. Hallett has since proclaimed that she voiced her disapproval over the WRU managements decision to withdraw Wales Women from the RBS 6 Nations tournament and into a second tier competition.^[17] In leading a player objection and meeting with senior WRU management on the matter it is thought by many that she sealed her own fate, and would never play for Wales again.

Being out of the international set up allowed Hallett the opportunity to represent invitational team the Nomads in World Cup 2014 warm up matches against Wales at the National Centre of Excellence and also South Africa in their World Cup preparations in England.

Her final game came in November 2014 where she led the Cardiff Blues invitational team against the Combined Services, in a special commemorative match marking 100 year anniversary of remembrance, played at the Cardiff Arms Park.^[18] It was a game Hallett cherished on Twitter as things came full circle; ending her playing career alongside scrum half Laura Prosser and coached by Nadine Griffiths, in the same circumstances how her career began back in 2004. A fitting end to a 10year journey.^[19]

miFuture

The miFuture website was launched in August 2015 with the mission to reinvent the recruitment process for 16-24 year olds in Wales.

As part of her 8 years of teaching experience, Gemma helped her students understand what opportunities were available to them, both in further education and in the workplace.She found it was often difficult to motivate young people to find the opportunities that are out there as the process of doing so – involving hundreds of job sites and lengthy searches – was arduous and often daunting.

The miFuture Website The miFuture platform needed to deliver on several fronts: it had to be highly user-friendly, and it had to remove ‘barriers’ to finding opportunities by making the process as intuitive as possible. Above all, it was essential that users were provided with the opportunities that matched their experience, skills and interests as closely as possible, to avoid them being ‘flooded’ with irrelevant information- the old problem that miFuture is intended to solve.^[20]

If courses, careers, training and more were going to exist on the system, miFuture also needed to provide features for opportunity providers that ensured a high level of visibility for their content and taking inspiration from popular social media platforms, she decided to develop a new way for school leavers to find their futures.^[21]

Gemma came up with the idea whilst trying to engage pupils to think about their options after they leave school or college.

The miFuture App Dubbed ‘Tinder for Jobs^[22]’ miFuture shows you opportunities that match your profile and aspirations, you quickly swipe through your matches, swiping right to apply instantly.

Modelled on the dating style and adapted to suit careers it as a unique recruitment tool. Users swipe right if they are interested in an opportunity, or swipe left if it doesn't interest them, bringing the process of applying for career options into the 21st century.^[23]

The App was launched in October 2015 on android.^[24]

Modern Approach True to its tagline "Career Solutions for the Smart Phone Generation" miFuture app and web platforms allows you to be notified and matched to opportunities and apply instantly without ever searching a website, newspaper or lifting a pen to rework that CV again. It eliminates the need for an updated CV and that time-consuming cover letter, as it matches using algorithms in our profile and creates a CV in the online platform if you do need to download or print at any time.

"I think miFuture is excellent, it matches me with what suits me without having to go through loads of different websites, and it’s really easy to use." says one miFuture user. "It’s mobile friendly, so I use it when out with my friends and show them too. I like that it creates a CV for you just by filling in the profile, it’s much easier and takes no time."^[25]

Gemma agrees. "This seems to be the only industry that hasn’t moved-on and embraced technology. Our users want to be informed and be able to apply instantly, not spend hours and hours searching opportunities and undergoing the lengthy application process. You have to ask what purpose this process serves anymore, does applying for an opportunity need to take longer than a few minutes or seconds. I don’t think so, our young users don’t think so"

References

External links

• Rugby World Interview
• Gemma Hallett RWC2010 Squad Announcement
• World Cup 2010 Images
• Hallett Returns to International Rugby
• Player Stats
• World Cup Supporters Blog
• Gem Hallett Twitter
• Gem Hallett LinkedIn