EU Projects

On December 9-10, 2019, the 3rd international meeting of the project “More than Gold” took place in Pescara, Italy. During the meeting, sections of the developed guidelines were presented and the partners agreed on how the guidelines will be tested in Universities in Latvia, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania and other European Union countries.

As each partner country has a very different situation in terms of dual career, the partners also agreed on common definitions for the different types of support and their terms.

In total, 6 countries participate in the project: the University of Latvia is the coordinator, while the consortium of partners consists of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romania), Catolica University of San Antonio de Murcia (Spain), University of Coimbra (Portugal), University degli Studi “G. d ‘ Annunzio “Chieti – Pescara (Italy) and the non-governmental organization” The European Athlete as Student “(Malta).

The project will last for 2 years and is co-funded by the European Union Erasmus  Sport program. As the result of the project first of all will develope Guidelines for HEI, which each partner organization can submit to Ministry responsible for education in the country (for example, Ministry of education and science) and afterward Ministry can recommend using Guidelines for all HEI in the country. Second – HEI will have Methodology material on how to easily use already existing activities and services for Dual Career support.

On December 4th and 5th, in Brussels a ERASMUS+ Cluster Meeting was organized by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and the Sport Unit of the European Commission.

Topic was „The role of sport in education: enhancing skills development and dual careers perspectives“.

The meeting was an opportunity for stakeholders and Erasmus+ funding recipients to meet, monitor projects’ implementation, collect information on best practices, identify relevant outcomes and provide synergies across the sectors. EAS was represented by President Laura Capranica (Rom), Treasurer Mojca Doupona-Topic (Ljubljana) and former Secretary General and still EC member Joerg Foerster (Hamburg)

This third Erasmus+ Sport Cluster meeting focuses on the promotion of education in and through sport with special focus on skills development and implementation of the EU guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes. The meeting’s objective was also to identity good practices which can be used as a basis for the new generation of sport calls for proposals.

The program included sessions on Dual career – from theory to reality, and Coach as teacher and lifelong learner, with High level policy session on What can we learn by practicing sport? and three thematic workshops: #BeAble on combining education and/or work with a sport career, #BeMore on skills through participation in sport activities and #BeBetter, focusing on coaching in a changing society.

EAS is actually contributing to the activities of projects focused on migrating athletes (AMID), women athletes (DONA), a positive image of athletes as students (EDU MEDIA), dual career parents (EMPATIA), guidelines for higher education institutes (More than Gold), the role of sports in high school (SoS), and the development of dual career toolkit (Starting 11). The Cluster meeting was also an opportunity to meet the partners and discuss progress of existing projects, as well as to explore new possibilities of cooperation.

From 4 to 6 December 2019, CUS Padova hosted the 3^rdtransnational meeting of the Sport Opens School project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.

It has been a 3-day training where high school physical education teachers of the partner Schools have learned how to implement the new physical education teaching method developed in the project.

The multidisciplinary team of experts in charge of developing the new teaching method had the occasion to discuss their teaching proposal with the teachers, addressing the 3 main subjects of the module: Physical Activity and Health; Fair play and Integrity; Life and Employability Skills. Trainers and teachers have interacted through experiential learning method and teamwork activities. What teachers have experienced during the training will be the base for the experimentation of the module with students in their schools that will start in January 2020.

Special thanks to the trainers of CUS Padova, project coordinator, an all partners that have developed the training activities (Italian National Olympic Committee – Italy; Bacău-Romania School Inspectorate; and European Athlete as Student network – Malta).

Also thanks for their active participation to all physical education teachers from Instituto N.ª Sra da Encarnação – Cooperativa de Ensino, Benedita – Portugal; Newton – Pertini Institute of Higher Education – Italy; Budapest VI. Kerületi Kölcse y Ferenc Gimnázium – Hungary.

EAS President Prof. Laura Capranica presented the DONA EU project in Bergamo, Nov. 20, 2019, at the – IX Conference Europe and Sports: Legal, Economical, and Social Profiles. From the Education Rights to the Dual Career of the Student-Athlete.

INFORMATION about DONA

DONA is based on the ERASMUS+ Collaborative Partnership program of EU. It is coordinated by the Associació Esportiva Carles Vallbona (Spain) and involves the Malta Volleyball Association (Malta), the Scuola di Pallavolo Anderlini Soc. Coop. Sociale SD (Italy), the Associação Aventura com Carisma – Leixoes Sport Club (Portugal), Istres Provence Volleyball (France), the De SportMaatschappij Foundation (Netherlands), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and the European Athlete as Student (EAS) Dual Career Network (Malta).

DONA aims to:

• decrease female athletes’ dropout from sport clubs;
• prepare athletes from an early age for the different transition periods ahead with developing the needed skills and competences;
• increase the number of professional and elite female volleyball players by retaining talents at clubs and supporting their DC development;
• make young athletes and their families aware that it is possible to aim for both educational and sports career;
• help them finding the right balance between sports and education with providing them the needed support services;
• prepare these athletes for their upcoming challenge to be successful in the change from elite sport to labour market – for the “career after the career”.

The 5th meeting European Commission Expert Group “Skills and Human Resources Development in Sport” was held in the Castello of Buonconsiglio of Trento, Italy on November 5-6, 2019.

Dr. Yves Le Lostecque, Agata Dziarnowska, and Nais Rigollet welcomed the national Delegates of the Member States and the Observers, provided the updates of the European Commission in the sport field, and moderated four sessions encompassingDual career; Education of coaches; Qualifications Skills in Sport; and the Italian sport system. Furthermore, before the meeting the Participants visited SPIN Italy, the world’s biggest accelerator for creating successful sports start-ups, in Rovereto. 

During the session on Dual Career, Prof. Paolo Bouquet (University of Trento) informed on the initiatives of UniSport Italia, the network of the Italian universities; Prof. Stefano Bastianon (University of Bergamo) illustrated the dual career system in Italy and presented the potential of the TopFit judgement of the Court of Justice (June 13, 2019 case C-22/18) on European dual career (see also Eurojus 2019, 4, pp. 81-85) ; and Prof. Laura Capranica (EAS President, University of Rome Foro Italico) illustrated the role of EAS in the development of a European dual career culture, and urged the Delegates to support the development of national guidelines and the involvement of dual career national stakeholders in Collaborative Partnerships relevant to their contexts.

October 29, 30 & 31th  in Cartagena (Spain), experts from Spain (UCAM), Poland, Albania, Macedonia, Italy, Greece and Cyprus participated in the Transnational Meeting of the European Erasmus + Trainer 1.0 Beta project.

Project led by the Polish association IRONMAN does have as organizing partner, UCAM Cartagena.

The project is based on promoting the dual career (Studies-sport) given the secondary importance for athletes between 14 and 18 years. For these reasons, the general objective of the Trainer 1.0 BETA project is to promote positive behaviors among young athletes, focusing on obtaining their first technical knowledge of the sport as coaches.

It aims to raise awareness and raise awareness of the need for young European athletes to think of an “exit strategy” within the world of sport, identifying and formalizing a form (Trainer 1.0 BETA model), which is validated at EU level by experts in education and training and sports federations. The project will test the Trainer 1.0 BETA model in different EU countries by training pilot experiences in sports training, aimed at young athletes, interested in professional training as a sports technician in football, Basketball, Handball and Volleyball.

This training includes in the program for young trainers, a seminar / workshop dedicated to individual professional planning. The program of this workshop will be prepared on the basis of previous projects, already implemented and validated by Erasmus + Sport Collaborative Partnerships. The project attempts to establish local promotional campaigns, coordinated at EU level, capable of identifying a “testimony” (level athletes) and “using it” as a model for young generations, oriented towards communication and social networks, aimed at promoting sports culture and the need to think about an alternative career after sport.