Author: ktibor

Third EAS Online Cafè

Media Role in the Promotion of the European Dual Career Culture

Zoom Meeting April 26, 2021 (from 12:00 CETS)

12:00 Welcome

Andrej Pisl – Communications and Projects Manager at European University Sports Association – EUSA and Member of the Ed Media Collaborative Partnership.

12:20 The former athlete and actual dual career scholar’s view

Andreas Küttel – Swiss former ski-jumping world champion and five-time Olympic athlete, Assistant Professor at SDU, and sports psychological consultant.

12:40 The coach’s view

Flavia Guidotti – Physical trainer of the AO THIRAS Santorini Volleyball team (Greece) and dual career scholar.

13:00 General discussions

13:25 Concluding Remarks and announcement of next EAS online café

The Partners of the Erasmus+ funded project ELCAMP (A Self-employment Career Option for Elite Athletes: Innovative Sport-focused Entrepreneurship Bootcamp) met virtually for a kick-off meeting in March. EAS was represented by dr. Mojca Doupona and dr. Tibor Kozsla.

The ELCAMP project focus to strengthen the skills and competencies of elite and Paralympic athletes on sport-focused entrepreneurship with innovative methods and connecting athletes among themselves and with other people interested in entrepreneurship. The project objectives directly address the target group of EAS. EAS will be actively involved in the pilot implementation phase of the project. EAS will also lead to the dissemination of project outputs both at the athlete’s level and at the level of sports organizations in Europe.

EL CAMP partners are Collective Innovation AS (Norway) in cooperation with European Paralympic Committee (Austria), Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (Spain), Hogskolen I Molde (Norway), Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas (Lithuania), Olimpijski Komite Slovenije Zdruzenje Sportnih Zvez (Slovenia).

On April 6 the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace is celebrated having a white card as a symbol to emphasize the positive values of sport, which unify individuals regardless of gender, ethnic, social or religious differences.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the SOS project celebrates the Sports Schools for Development and Peace event (@peaceandsport, @SportOpensSchool, #WhiteCard, #April6, #OnlyTogether) with a video involving students from the Hungarian (Kolcsey Ferenc Gimnazium, Budapest), Italian (IIS Newton Pertini, Camposampietro), Portuguese (Externato Cooperativo da Benedita), and Romanian (Liceum cum Program Sportiv, Bacau) Partner high schools.

Through its involvement in the European ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership More Than Gold (603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP), EAS contributed to raising awareness on the dual career of athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, a study aimed to investigate the student-athlete’s capability to face the academic, sport, and social challenges during the 2019 lockdown and to disclose novel aspects of dual careers has been published on the prestigious peer-review journal Frontiers in Psychology. Four hundred sixty-seven student-athletes from 11 countries completed an ad-hoc survey. The findings substantiate the relevant role of a dual career in coping with the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic through home training and e-learning valuable resources. The full text is available here.

On March 19, 2021, the EMPATIA educational platform was presented during the “Reconciling academic career and the competitive sporting commitments: The experimental educational project elite student-athlete” session of the online “Didacta Fair 2021”. This event is the most relevant meeting of the Italian school sector during which teachers, educators, school principals and sector experts participate in training, webinars, workshops, meetings, and updates on the school world (https://fieradidacta.indire.it/it/).

More than 80 regional coordinators, principals, and teachers attended the dual career session coordinated by dr. Paola Deiana from the Italian Ministry of Education (Manager of the Fifth Office – School sports policies). Prof. Federica Pilotti and Prof. Immacolata Messuri illustrated the findings and envisaged further development of the experimental project “sport at high school level”. In presenting the development of the dual career programme at the Sports High School Pacinotti-Archimede of Rome, prof. Paolo Cambone (physical education and sports teacher) highlighted the need to establish a fruitful dialogue between the teachers, the sports staff, and the parents. Thus, prof. Cambone introduced the educational platform of the EMPATIA project (https://edu.empatiasport.eu/it/), co-created and validated also in cooperation with the parents of the student-athletes enrolled at the Sports High School Pacinotti-Archimede of Rome. At the end of the dual career session, Dr. Deiana envisaged cooperation with EAS for the benefit of student-athletes

On March 3, 2021, the University of Limerick organized the online kick-off meeting of the EU-funded BRAVA-DC project (622824-EPP-1-2020-1-IE-SPO-SCP), which aims to enhance a dual career in the Corporate Social Responsibility of the European labour market.

During the three-year life course of the project, the BRAVA Team will encompass dual career, academic, and managerial experts from the University of Limerick (IRL – coordinators), European Platform for Sports and Innovation (BEL), Roma Tre University (ITA), Faculty of Sport and Physical Education University of Nis (SRB), University of Ljubljana (SLO), Fondazione Human Age Institute (ITA), the EUSA Institute (SLO), and the European Athlete as Student (MAL). In structuring an evidence- and eminence-based knowledge on DC employed athletes for the definition of a European conceptual framework fostering the alignment brand strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies with DC, BRAVA-DC will contribute to the implementation of the European DC guidelines in the workplace.

Through its participation in European ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnerships, EAS contributes to the development of relevant European dual career aspects and to strengthen the link between educational institutions and sports organizations for the benefit of student-athletes. The article “The Contribution of the European Athlete as Student Network (EAS) to European Dual Career ERASMUS+ Sport Collaborative Partnerships: An update” published in the special issue of the journal Cultura Ciencia y Desporte “The Importance of Making the Dual Career Visible in Scientific Journals” (vol. 16, issue 47, p 7-17 https://ccd.ucam.edu/index.php/revista/issue/view/87) informs on the objectives and progression of the AMiD, EMPATIA, DONA, Ed Media, More Than Gold, Starting 11 and SOS project in which EAS cooperates with sport bodies and educational institutions to envisage novel solutions for the development of opportunities in education and sport paths of athletes.

Despite evidence- and eminence- based methods encompassing literature reviews, desk, gap, SWOT and PESTEL analyses, focus groups, surveys, semi-structured interviews, work- shops, and concept mapping on several dual career dimensions, a limited implementation of the EU guidelines emerged. The findings highlight the necessity of maintaining dual career among the European priorities in the field of sport and to envisage a surveillance plan at various dual career environmental levels (e.g., policies, systems, programmes). 

Click hereunder to access the article

On February 19, 2021, Dual Career and the ‘More than Gold’ project was presented at the scientific conference ‘Sport for the sustainability of society’ organized online by the University of Latvia (UL), during which more than 70 participants from Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, and Russia discussed research topics for social development in and through sports.

In aiming to contribute to the development of a Dual Career culture in Europe, the six partners of the European Collaborative Partnership ‘More than Gold’ (University of Latvia, Latvia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania; Universidad Catolica de Murcia, Spain; the University of Coimbra, Portugal; the  University of Chieti-Pescara “G. d’Annunzio”, Italy; and EAS, Malta) are finalizing the development of Dual Career guidelines for higher education institutions (HEI) based on student-athletes’ needs, best practices, and opinion of HEI experts on a feasible implementation of financial, logistic, academic and social support of university athletes.

On February 3, 2021, the Catholic University of San Antonio Murcia (UCAM-Spain) organized the virtual kick-off meeting of the ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative partnership “Dual Career of Students-Athletes with Disabilities as a Tool for Social Inclusion – A dual career of athletes – students with disabilities as a tool for social inclusion (Paralimits)” for the promotion of the holistic development of the Paralympic athletes and their social integration into the labour market at the end of their sports career.
In a video recording, Mr. Alejandro Blanco Bravo, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee highlighted the relevance of dual careers in athletes with disabilities and welcomed the Members of the European Athlete as Student Network – Malta, the University of Rome Foro Italico – Italy, the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu – Portugal, the National Physical Education University of Bucharest – Romania, the University of Limerick – Ireland,  the Collective Innovation – Norway, and the European Paralympic Committee.
During its 30-month life span, the Partners of Para-limits will detect the needs and barriers the student-athletes with disabilities in combining their sporting and university commitments. Based on the collected evidence- and eminence-based information the partners will develop a guide to boost the dual career among athletes with disabilities, create an innovative course for the training of university staff as sports mentors specialized in student-athletes with disabilities, and publish a European Handbook to serve as a tool for disseminating the project to other stakeholders.  The work will culminate in the creation of the Observatory on Dual Career, Disability and Sport to continue the achievements made and maintain the positive impact of this model beyond the completion of the project.

Second Virtual EAS Café on Dual Career Migrating Athletes

Originating from the findings of the EU Collaborative Partnership “Athletic migration: Dual Career and qualification in sports (AMiD)” project (590400-EPP-1-2017-1-AT-SPO-SCP), the second EAS Virtual Cafè event focused on dual career migrating athletes, attracting 48 European dual career experts.

Cristina Cortis,  Associate Professor and Rector’s Delegate for Sport at the University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale (Italy), illustrated the AMiD project on dual career migrating (https://www.termedia.pl/Student-athlete-migration-A-systematic-literature-review,129,42089,1,1.html), its published literature review (https://blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi/amid/description/) and expected publication of further information. She envisaged strong cooperation between sport bodies and educational stakeholders to develop a European dual career environment, which could facilitate the migration of student-athletes between the Member States.

Josefa Idem, the top-level kayak athlete with an outstanding achievement of 38 medals in Olympic Games (2 as a German and 6 as an Italian athlete), World and European Championships, described the challenges and opportunities of being a migrating top athlete who combined her long competitive career with political appointments and maternal role of two children. She considered the challenges as real opportunities, suggesting that youth athletes could profit from biographies of former athletes. As a psychologist and consultant of the Italian Soccer Federation, she also presented a cultural vision encompassing a lifelong education of all the actors in sports to support the holistic development of youth athletes as citizens.

Preben Astrup, the General Manager of the Danish Migration project “Get2sport”, illustrated the background, aims, activities, and benefits of a relevant and effective project for the integration of refugees in the sport clubs and schools all over Denmark. In presenting the fruitful cooperation with local refugee centres, municipalities, voluntary coaches, teachers and leaders, he highlighted the crucial role of parents in making “Get2sport” successful for the benefit of the youth athletes and the society at large. Indeed, the Get2sport project represents good practice for the integration of different culture and the advancement of local communities.

In summarizing the outcomes of the café, Laura Capranica noted that the speakers moved from the holistic development of the athlete as a student to the holistic development of the society by means of education in and through sport. Thus, the participants were invited to attend the third EAS Virtual Cafè and the Annual Conference to be held in Lisbon, European Capital of Sport 2021.

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