October 2021
On October 21-23, 202, ENGSO organized the European Sport Platform in Vilnius, Lithuania. The first day of the event was dedicated to the results of the EU-funded project CHAMP, which was dedicated to the innovation and modernization of sport clubs and sports movements.
The morning of the second day was dedicated to EU policies for sport, with particular focus on building inclusive process, including presentations by Stefan Bergh, ENGSO President, Diana Reklaitiene, Lithuanian Sport University Rector, Darius Saluga, Lithuanian Union of Sport Federations President, and Florencia Van Houdt, Head of the Unit for Sport at the European Commission.
The afternoon was dedicated to workshops focused on Evidence for impact – how grassroots sports can use research more efficiently? – Equality in Sport – Change that Inspires Change – and Dual Career: from policy to practice.
Moderated by Agne Vanagiene, Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, the keynote speaker of the dual career workshop, Laura Capranica – EAS President, reported the recent progress of the European discourse on dual career and the outcomes of the recently finalized EU-funded projects: “AMID – Athletic Migration in Dual Career”, coordinated by the University of Salzburg, Austria (https://blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi/amid/) and “Ed Media – Media as a channel of Athletes’ Dual Careers promotion and education”, coordinated by the Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas of Kaunas, Lithuania (https://www.lsu.lt/en/project-edmedia/); the EU-funded approaching the finish line: “EMPATIA – Education Model for Parents of AThlete in Academics”, coordinated by the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (https://www.empatiasport.eu); “More than Gold”, coordinated by the University of Latvia (https://morethangold.eu); “DONA – Dual Career for wOmeN Athlete”, coordinated by the Associació Esportiva Carles Vallbona, Spain; “SOS – Sport Opens Schools”, coordinated by the Centro Universitario Sportivo di Padova, Italy (https://www.sportopensschool.eu); “STARTING11”, coordinated by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands (https://starting11.eu); and the ongoing projects: “Para-Limits”, coordinated by the Universitad Catolica de Murcia – UCAM, Spain (https://paralimits.eu); “ELCAMP A Self-employment Career Option for Elite Athletes: Innovative Sport-focused Entrepreneurship Bootcamp”, coordinated by Collective Innovation AS (COLLINN), Norway; and BRAVA-DC – BRAnd Value Alignment through Dual Career, coordinated by the University of Limerick, Ireland. In particular, the already available dual career educational platforms of EdMedia (https://www.lsu.lt/en/project-edmedia/edmedia-online-platform/); and EMPATIA (https://edu.empatiasport.eu/eng/) were presented, as well the new frontiers of a dual career extended to sportspersons (e.g., coaches, referees, and sports managers) and the development of dual career monitoring.
Inga Staskeviciute Butiene, Associate Professor at the Lithuanian Sports University, presented the Lithuanian dual career observatory and the follow-up findings of the EdMedia project, including the evolution of a dual career in Lithuania. Wolfgang Stockinger, TW1N CEO (Austria), illustrated the activities of the programme RESPECT YOUR TALENT, which promotes the holistic development of talented players’ careers on and off the handball court. Finally, the Olympic athlete specialized in walking and sports journalist Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė offered her experience regarding the difficulties and barriers dual career employee-athletes encounter in balancing their working and sports commitments.
The last day of the event encompassed the workshop “Sustainability in and through Sport – Air Quality (air quality issues that impact global sport”, including presentations by Paolo Emilio Adami – Medical Manager – Health and Science Department at World Athletic, Niki Koutrou, Bournemouth University, UK, and EU funded PlayGreen project, and Ivana Pranjic, ENGSO. Finally, Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Erasmus Mundus & Sport Unit – EACEA presented “Capacity building: Next funding program for sport”
Stefan Bergh, ENGSO President, and Sara Massini, ENGSO Secretary General closed the event and announced that the next European Sport Forum will be in the Netherlands.
On October 14, 2021, the University of Pisa, Italy hosted the “Dual Career – Modernization of the University”.
Paolo Maria Mancarella, University Rector and Michele Conti, Major of Pisa welcomed the participants, whereas Marco Gesi, Pro-Rector for Sport and organizer of the event introduced the evolution of a dual career in Italy and at the University of Pisa, envisaging more structured strategies at the national level.
Antonio
Dima, President of CUSI – The Italian University Sport Association, underlined the relevance of synergies between institutions to achieve common goals.
Laura Capranica, EAS President, illustrated the progression of a dual career in Europe and envisioned the challenges for future development of dual career, also including coaches, referees, sports managers, and employee-athletes/coaches.
Paolo Bouquet, President of Unisport Italia, emphasized the role of the association of Italian Universities interested in sport in contributing to the advancement of an Italian discourse in dual career and pointed out the opportunities for universities to broaden their horizon in and through sports.
Salvatore Sanzo, a Member of the Board of the Italian Olympic Committee, recalled his personal experience as a student-athlete at the University of Pisa and substantiated the importance of a dual career in the Italian Olympic agenda.
Sara Morganti, a bronze Paralympic medalist in Tokyo 2020, offered her experience regarding the difficulties and barriers she encountered in managing her dual career as a student-athlete and as an employee-athlete.
Finally, Giovanni Malagò, President of the Italian Olympic Committee highlighted the multi-faceted dual career environments with a variety of actors having distinct and peculiar responsibilities in supporting the holistic development of athletes and in establishing an effective dialogue to ensure cultural progress in the sport. At the end of the event, CONI merits were awarded to sportsmen and sportswomen.
On October 11, 2021, the meeting of the Bureau of the Consultative Committee of EPAS was organized in a hybrid format, with Chair Kole Gjeloshaj (ISF), Laura Capranica (EAS), James Ogilvie (UEFA) and Francine Raveney (EPAS) in presence at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and Tone Jagodic (EOC), Louis Mustakas (ENSE), Janez Sodrznik (TAFISA) and Michael Trinker (EPAS) in a telematic modality.
During the meeting, the need to improve communication with the Members of the Consultative Committee has been highlighted and possible actions have been envisaged. In particular, introductory sessions for new CC members have been proposed. Among dissemination activities, face-to-face and online conferences and webinars on specific issues have been considered relevant, as well as the dissemination of Conference results, such as those of the EPAS diversity conference 2021 (https://rm.coe.int/draft-conclusions-and-recommendations-dc2021-sf-18092021rev/1680a3ea2e).
The Bureau also discussed upcoming events, including the planning and selection of the topics of the next webinars, starting from February 2022. Upcoming events encompass the Conference on integrity in sport, to be held in Rome, Italy, on 6/7 December 2021, a launching event on the European Sports Charter (https://rm.coe.int/recommendation-cm-rec-2021-5-on-the-revision-of-the-european-sport-cha/1680a43914) to be expected next November 2021. To note, Members of the Consultative Committee will be involved in the upcoming evaluation visits on the European Sports Charter expected in North Macedonia and Albania.
Finally, the relevance of the projects “Joint project: Hate speech in sport”, “Start to Talk”, and “Child Safeguarding in Sport” has been mentioned, also in light of the planning for future project proposals.
On September 20-22 the 2021 EAS Annual Conference was organized in Lisbon, Portugal, by the University Institute of Lisbon – ISCTE. The three-day event was organized in a blended format, with 40 participants from 12 different countries in the presence and others attending online.
On September 20, the Conference focused on Dual Career Policies, with Vítor Pataco reporting on the 2021 Portuguese EU Presidency, and Mojca Doupona describing the ongoing activities of the Slovenian EU Presidency.
- Tomasz Francowsky, Member of the European Parliament, anticipated an extension of dual career to sport staff in the upcoming Report on EU Sports Policy of the European Parliament.
- Yves Le Lostecque, Head of the European Commission Sport Unit, illustrated the future opportunities provided by the European Commission. The durable links of EAS with the European policymakers supporting dual career was testified by the participation of Agata Dziarnowska as a special guest.
- With respect to the Portuguese policies, Rui Vieira and Josefina Cruz presented the case of Ginásio Clube Português and António Figueiredo informed on the Portuguese University Dual Career Policy.
- The presentations of 2020-2021 Bengt Nybelius Scholarships winners Malene Knudsen and Natasa Verk ended the first morning session.
In the afternoon, the session was dedicated to dual career best practices in different settings and countries.
On September 21, the morning session focused on Dual Career in football and was hosted at the City of Football in Oeiras, home to the Portuguese Football Federation.
- After José Couceiro, Vice-president and National Director of the Portuguese Football Federation, welcomed the EAS guests, presentations by André Seabra – Director of the Portugal Football School, Pedro Dionísio – Dual Career Manager Course from ISCTE, and Aida Ramos – a psychologist from the Sporting Clube de Portugal Academy, followed.
- In the afternoon, the EAS General Assembly took place at ISCTE. After approving the EAS 2020 and ongoing 2021 activity and financial reports, the Assembly was notified of the resignation of Joerg Foerster as a Member of the Executive Committee due to his new position at EUSA and commitment to the organization of the Universiade. The Assembly recognized the tremendous work accomplished by Joerg Foerster since the establishment of EAS and hoped that he will establish new and fruitful cooperation on dual career on behalf of EAS. To replace the vacant position, the Assembly unanimously voted as a Member of the Executive Committee Prof. Antonio Sánchez Pato from the Universidad Catòlica de Murcia, Spain.
At the beginning of the last day, the final event of the EMPATIA ERASMUS+ Sport Programme took place.
- Laura Capranica and Viktorija Pecnikar-Oblak reported on the evidence- and eminence-based knowledge employed to develop the EMPATIA educational programme designed to help parents/guardians of student-athletes to support their children. Thus, the participants had the opportunity to navigate and evaluate the presentations were the multilingual EMPATIA platform (https://edu.empatiasport.eu/eng/).
- The last session encompassed presentations of the ERASMUS+ Sport projects AMID, PARA-LIMITS, DONA, SCORES, STARTING11, YODA Mentors, and More Than Gold. Finally, President
Laura Capranica thanked Duarte Nuno Lopes, Tiago Samuel da Silva, and ICSTE for their courage, efforts, and hard work in organizing such a tremendous 2021 EAS Conference despite the day-by-day challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic and invited the EAS Members to attend the 2022 EAS Annual Conference in Spain.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu