Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the position of sport management education (SME) in relation to employment in the sport fitness industry and if a shift towards a greater emphasis on business and management module teaching is justified or conversely a greater utilisation of the rich data being generated by sport management researchers can be applied to the vocational development of sport management students. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in two parts. Part 1 consisted of interviews with the author by an interviewer to explore their industry experiences, the author's experience of entrepreneurial sport industry business and intrapreneurial sport teaching. The resultant data have been distilled into a series of paradigms, including employing sport industry staff and teaching sport management. Part 2 triangulates part 1 with the managerial experience of sports and leisure centre managers to develop a qualitative study. Sports and leisure centre managers were interviewed regarding candidate and employee competences judged as extreme examples of sport management knowledge and understanding. Findings: Four themes emerged, such as alignment, underpinning subject-specific knowledge, a voice from the sport industry in developing SME and postgraduate opportunities for work-based learning. Research limitations/implications: A small-scale study that requires further research in each of the three areas--sport spectator, sport participation and elite performer management. Practical implications: The sport centre interview instrument, with some refinements, could form the basis of an improved system to gain rich data from industry members of higher education business advisory groups. The developed data collection tool could increase the effective collection of data from a wider cohort. Originality/value: The approach has produced an adapted category of pedagogy. Employability inspired teaching (EiT) is an original terminology describing the subject-specific content that leads to improved opportunities for subject (sport) industry employment.