February 2023
“Dual Career from Education to Work: Human Right of the Sportsperson”
Zoom Meeting February 27, 2023 (from 12:00 CET)
12:00 Welcome
Prof. Antonio Tessitore, PhD – University of Rome Foro Italico, and Chair of the EAS Scientific Committee.
12:10 – Köle Gjeloshaj, PhD: “Dual career of athletes at the International sports organizations”
Vice-President of the Panathlon Wallonie-Bruxeles, Belgium and strategic coordinator of the president of the European Fair-Play Movement, Scientific Collaborator at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, dr. Gjeloshaj worked from 1996 to 2017 at the International University Sports Federation (FISU), for which he set up the educational and development departments as Director of the Educational department. He joined the International School Sport Federation (ISF) in 2018, where he covered the position of Deputy Secretary General until 2022. He is now a civil servant within the Federation Wallonie Bruxelles as coordinator of the logistical team for the Belgium Presidency of the EU in 2024 of the International Relations Department. Dr. Gjeloshaj was the team leader for FISU of the Proclamation by UNESCO (2015) of the International Day of University Sport. The Co-rapporteur (2021-22) of the High Level Group on Gender Equality in Sport of the European Commission. From 2020 to 2022, he chaired the Consultative Committee of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport of the Council of Europe. He is an alumni of ULB (Political sciences) and the University of Pisa (Anti mafia and corruption).
12:35 – Giovanni Di Cola, PhD: “Rights and obligations and dual career of professional athletes”
Dr. Giovanni Di Cola has a wide experience within the United Nations System, having served in various UN agencies (UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, and ILO) with assignments at the UN Staff College and the UN Secretariat, on matters related to the UN reform, Youth leadership and Sport for Development and Peace. He contributed to establish a network of 150 universities, on local economic development as ILO inter-regional programme (Universitas) coordinator between 2001 and 2008 based in Geneva. Since 2016, he was instrumental in establishing the multistakeholder initiative as Centre for Sport and Human Rights in 2021, to which he ensured that ILO could be represented as founding member and permanent observer. He was lead expert of the ILO Global Forum on Decent work in the world of sport of January 2020, in which the ILO Points of Consensus were adopted.
13:00 – General discussions and concluding Remarks
On February 2-3, 2022, the Center of Excellence of Split Dalmatia County (Croatia), project leader of the Erasmus+Sport project TALENT (Cloud-based education for creative sport talents), organized a hybrid kickoff meeting in Split (Croatia) welcoming the members of the consortium from the University of Palermo (Italy), the University of Nis (Serbia), the Sarajevo Susret Kultura (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Kentro Merimnas Oikogeneias Kai Paidiou (Greece), the CSI Center for Social Innovation LTD (Cyprus) and EAS (Malta).
TALENT is focused on the integration of youth talents in their school and sports environments through a program that is pre-operational with respect to an actual dual-career programme. In having an extensive experience in sports and educational international projects, the TALENT consortium aims to create a methodology able to increase the awareness of the identification, the support, and the prevention of drop-out of talented youth through an integrated campaign involving teachers, parents and coaches.
In enjoying the cultural heritage of Split and the Mediterranean cuisine, during the two-day meeting the TALENT consortium discussed the development of a desk analysis and focus groups with coaches and experts in the field of youth sport and education, as well as plans for communication strategies to raise the awareness of the stakeholders of the project. This evidence and eminence knowledge will be a solid base to create an online TALENT platform to support youth talents in and beyond sports.
After COVID-19 pandemic, on January 30, 2023 the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) organized in Brussels the 2023 Erasmus+Sport Info Day to inform on the EU funding opportunities. Around 700 participants attended the event in presence, whereas a large audience participated in an online modality. EAS was represented by Laura Capranica (President), Mojca Doupona (Treasures), Ole Keldorf (Secretary General) and Antonio Figueiredo (ExCom Members).
Mr Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Erasmus Mundus & Sport Unit at EACEA opened the welcome session, followed by Mr Tomas Johansson, Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of the Swedish Government, and video messages by Ms Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth and Ms Tiziana Beghin, Member of the European Parliament.
Ms Gael Broze, Head of Erasmus Sport Sector – EACEA; Ms Vanina Milanova, President of the EMCA Assembly and Secretary General of Levski – Bulgaria; Ms Ana Silva, Expert at the Sport Cabinet at the Municipality of Lousada – Portugal; and Mr Luciano Di Fonzo, Deputy Head of Erasmus Mundus & Sport Unit at EACEA participated in the first session dedicated to the Erasmus+ Sport Programme and project implementation chaired by Mr Le Lostecque.
Ms Florencia Van Houdt, Head of Sport Unit at DG EAC of the European Commission chaired the second session was dedicated to Erasmus+ Sport Policy priorities and innovation, with Mr Stefano Pintus, Sport Unit Policy Officer at DG EAC of the European Commission, Ms Laura Capranica, Professor at the University of Rome Foro Italico and President of EAS; Mr Bart Ooijen, Netherlands Permanent Representation to the EU; Mr Thomas Pedersen-Smith, Head of National Associations at the European Hockey Federation; and Ms Cathy Verschoore, Deputy Manager at the Department of Culture, Sports and Leisure at the City of Gent, Belgium. The panelists illustrated successful examples of innovative Erasmus+ projects and presented some advice for future applications.
To facilitate the preparation of ERASMUS+sport and Capacity Building applications, three parallel sessions were organized in the afternoon, followed by the last plenary session on other EU funding opportunities, which was co-chaired by Mr Luciano Di Fonzo and Mr Olivier Smith, Deputy Head of Unit Sport Policy at DG EAC of the European Commission. The panelists Ms Violeta Birzniece, Ms Michael Serneels, Ms Izabela Pelczynska, and Ms Sophie Lemel presented the mobility, pilot projects, preparatory actions, and BeActive awards fundings in the field of sport. Further information on EACEA’s funding opportunities is available at https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/grants/how-get-grant_en
Mr Le Lostecque presented the final remarks and thanked the work of the organizers before officially closing the event, which allowed plenty of opportunities for participants to network during the breaks between the sessions. The presentations on the European and the priorities of the Swedish Presidency in sports, as well as on the preparation of ERASMUS+sport and Capacity Building applications are available at the official website of the event https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/events/info-session-erasmus-sport-2023-2023-01-30_en.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu