Albion's all-conquering youth team have gone back to school.

The Youth Alliance premier (south east) champions hope to continue their success story off the pitch this week by passing course work assessments and exams with flying colours.

Shaun Wilkinson is learning to become a brickie and Daniel Marney and Kevin Hemsley are doing a sports science course.

They all want to become professional footballers, but need an alternative occupation to fall back on if they fail to make it.

Wilkinson spends ten hours every Monday on a National Vocational Level 2 Qualification course at the Highbury College in his native Portsmouth.

To qualify he must demonstrate six "units of competence" which includes erecting and dismantling scaffolding and constructing walls, fireplaces, flues and chimney stacks.

"It's a good thing and I'm enjoying it," said Wilkinson, who has played for Albion's first team against Swansea and Plymouth his season.

"I feel reasonably confident that if my football doesn't work out I would know what to do as a bricklayer. I'm with 40-year-olds on my course who are learning the trade properly and regretting they didn't do it earlier.

"I'm hoping I can do well in my assessments and get a certificate."

Graham Pellatt, the college area co-ordinator, is pleased with Wilkinson's progress. He said: "Shaun has done well alongside other trainees in his group, sometimes working as a member of a team carrying out a number of small training projects."

While Manchester United whooped up their premier title success in front of 60,000 fans at Old Trafford this week, the youth team celebrated their own triumph by training, cleaning the training ground and preparing for their final lessons of the college year.

Marney, 18, spends ten hours a week studying over two days in the creative science block at Falmer.

He said: "The course is all right. I've learned plenty about injuries, the prevention of injuries and nutrition which is something the youth manager Dean Wilkins is very keen on. There is the PE and computer side too. I've been working on a project using libraries and the Internet as well.

"I left school to become a footballer and it means going back to studying but I want something to fall back on."

Hemsley, a defender from from Crawley, said: "I find the biological science interesting. We conduct running tests, like sprinting up steps, to test the body's power output."

Rupert Sansom, a 17-year-old midfielder from Hove with 10 GCSES already, sits seven exams linked to his General NVQ Business Studies course he does with defender Andy Beech.

Sansom said: "I actually like sitting exams. I learned about the techniques of exams from my elder brother and sister. I like art, particularly modern art, and was going to do that to.

"But it didn't allow enough time to concentrate on the Business Studies which involves a lot of areas such as marketing. We use the Internet and visit firms to see how things work. It's pretty good."

Tutor Graham Holmes praised his students and underlined the benefits.

He said: "They've had a very good year football-wise and they've done well academically too. It often goes hand in hand.

"It's very hard because it's extra on top of their full-time job and initially it was like going back to school, but they're a bright bunch. They see the glamour side but they know what their reality is. They're self-motivated. It's important to have a back-up because on average only one in eight make it as a professional and that figure is halved among 20-year-olds. It's why the PFA wanted to step up the education side."

Albion's attitude is simple. Martin Hinshelwood, director of youth, tells them: "If you don't do your course work, you don't play."

He added: "The drop out of youth players has been huge so there has been greater emphasis on course work and an extension from two to three-year deals when you sign them. They have two-year education courses but can take re-sits or doing something else education-wise in the third year if they want to.

"We'd like them in every day training, but it's a good idea for the lads to secure good qualifications and it sharpens the mind, and a quicker mind is a big help playing football."

* Albion's youth aces conceded the first goal in their eight Youth Alliance premier (south east) matches when completing their season with a 4-1 victory over Walsall. Marney, Danny Davis, Steve Dallaway and Chris McPhee scored as they came back from one down.