EVENTS
Within the EU Erasmus+ sports programme (603523-EPP-1-2018-1-SI-SPO-SCP ), the Athletes Friendly Education – AFE Collaborative Partnership (https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/eplus-project-details#project/603523-EPP-1-2018-1-SI-SPO-SCP) coordinated by the Slovenian Olympic Committee in cooperation with the Deutsche Olympische Akademie Willi Daume (DOA), the Pomorski Fakultet u Rijeci, the Odbojkarska Federacija na Makedonija, the EUSA Institute, the Hrvatska Olimpijska Akademija, the Comite Olympique Et Interfederal Belge ASBL, the Univerza v Mariboru and the Comite Olimpico De Portugal, published the Athletes Friendly Education Book (https://www.verlagdrkovac.de/volltexte/12146/12147_Athletes_Friendly_Education_OpenAccess.pdf) and the Athletes Friendly Education Handbook: Award for Educational Institutions Supporting the Dual Career of Athletes (https://athletes.friendly.edu.olympic.si/results/athletes-friendly-education-handbook), which address the topic of athlete’s education requiring a continuous planning, organizing, and improving a system of adaptations included in the educational process and infrastructure.
These adaptations are implemented voluntarily and in a benevolent, systematic, comprehensive, and transparent manner with the explicit aim to help athletes engage in sport, and simultaneously achieve goals and competencies set out in the educational program and thus complete their education. In particular, suggested aspects to be considered when working with athletes encompass systemic measures on the state level, the role of educational institutions and their evaluation, the student’s motivation, the role of e-learning in supporting elite athletes, and the effect of curriculum adaptations on overall academic success.
Further information on empirical research is available in the “Dual Career Development Perspective: Factors Affecting Quality of Post-sport Career Transition of employed Olympic Athletes” published in the peer-review journal Frontiers in Psychology (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.800031/full).
A Self-employment Career Option for Elite Athletes: Innovative Sport-focused Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (ElCAMP) is an ERASMUS project aiming to provide European elite athletes with a platform to support the creation of their business based on the identification of the athleytes’ needs and expectations in terms of entrepreneurship.
The Collaborative Partnership is coordinated by Collective Innovation AS (Norway) and includes the Hogskolen I Molde (Norway), Olimpijski Komite Slovenije Zdruzenje Sportnih Zvez (Slovenia), Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (UCAM, Spain) Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas (Lithuania), Mobile Adventure Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia (Poland), and EAS as Partners.
On March 31, 2022, UCAM welcomed the Partners in Cartagena to discuss the findings of the ELCAMP research phase, which encompassed comparative analyses of 38 interviews carried out by four partners, and an online survey administered to 188 athletes. In particular, five main areas of interest to be included in the platform have been identified, mainly related to business knowledge, entrepreneurial attitudes, business management, entrepreneurial skills, and technological knowledge.
Future steps will comprise the dissemination of the platform and its validation before October 2022. More information is available at the ElCAMP website https://www.bootcampforathletes.com
On 24 and 25 March, 2022, UNISPORT ITALIA (the network of 53 Italian universities) organized the First National Conference on Dual Career at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”. The event aimed to stimulate reflections on the profound cultural change that is taking place in Italy in the relationship between academia and sport, to highlight projects and good practices in place, and to outline future actions for an enhanced synergies between these two sectors in relation to services, research, innovation, and contribution to communities and territories.
During the first day, the President of UNISPORT ITALIA, Paolo Bouquet (University of Trento) and the Rector University of Rome Foro Italico, Attilio Parisi, welcomed the participants and the distinguished lecturers. The event was opened by the Undersecretary of State for Sport and Olympic medalist Valentina Vezzali, who commended the networking activities and the fruitful exchange of good practices of UNISPORT ITALIA. She also anticipated the Governmental support for improving Dual Career at academic level including the allocation of funds for scholarships to athletes as students. Luca Pancalli, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) claimed that a country not investing in education has no future, being the cultural growth a real social elevator and an assurance for social inclusion. Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, affirmed that sport and education must be integrated for the holistic development of the individual. Giovanni Malagò, President of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), and Pompeo Leone, Secretary General of the Italian association of University Sport (CUSI) underlined the relevant efforts of UNISPORT ITALIA, CONI, and CUSI in developing national Dual Career guidelines to allow an effective complementarity of sports and academic careers. Salvatore Cuzzocrea, Vice President of the Italian Conference of University Rectors (CRUI), recognized the sports values of equality, collaboration, attention, and respect of rules crucial to educate future generations of citizens. Vito Cozzoli, President of Sport & Health, Andrea Abodi President of the the Italian bank for the sustainable development of sports and culture (Istituto di Credito Sportivo) envisioned future collaboration with UNISPORT ITALIA for the promotion of the educational value of sport and possible development of sports facilities at university level, respectively.
Maurizio Marano (University of Bologna), presented the findings of the survey promoted by UNISPORT ITALIA on Dual Career at Italian Universities and the online platform developed to help athletes get acquainted with the different Dual Career paths offered at academic level (https://www.unisport-italia.it/dual-career/). Kairis Ulp, Policy Officer of the European Commission, illustrated the European dimension of the Dual Career of athletes and the opportunities of the 2021-2024 workplan for sport. Mojca Doupona, Slovenian Director General for Sport and EAS Treasurer, described the actions carried out during the Past Slovenian Presidency of the European Union and the follow-up peer learning activities in Dual Career planned for September 2022. Paolo Pizzo (CONI) explained the efforts and objectives of the CONI-UNISPORT ITALIA-CUSI working group in developing the national guidelines for Dual Career. The EAS President, Laura Capranica, pointed out the achievements, challenges, and future directions of the developmental process in Dual Career fostered by the ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnerships. Pompeo Leone (CUSI) reported on the research carried out by CUSI on Dual Career programmes at higher academic institutions and distributed the report book to the participants (also available at http://cusi.it/wp-content/uploads/ALLEGATIPDF/The_dual_career_of_student_athletes_in_italian_universities_cc.pdf). Finally, Dr. Elisabetta Nones (University of Trento and member of the Board of the European network on sports services in universities – ENAS) introduced the aims of the European Network of Academic Sports Services (ENAS).
On March 25, Dual Career programmes and projects at the University of Verona, Polytechnic of Turin, University of Padua, University for Foreigners of Siena, Luiss Guido Carli University, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (UCSC), University of Molise, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, University of Naples “Federico II, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, University of Trento, Link Campus University, Sapienza University of Rome and Campus Bio-Medico University, University of Calabria, University of Siena have been presented and the financial opportunities provided by the Credito Sportivo have been described. After the Conference, the General Assembly of UNISPORT Italia elected the eight Members of 2022-2025 Board (Marco Barla, Politecnico di Torino; Paolo Bouquet, Università di Trento; Laura Capranica, Università di Roma “Foro Italico”; Cristina Cortis, Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale; Marco Gesi, Università di Pisa; Caterina Gozzoli, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Luigi Melica, Università del Salento; Antonio Paoli, Università di Padova), who will designate the new President in the next days. The Board will also include a Member Designated by CRUI.
Hrvatski olimpijski odbor – Naslovna (hoo.hr)
Zagreb, Croatia March 29, 2022 – Very well-known Croatian Olympian Snježana Pejčić (39) has been hired as the head of the newly established Career Centre for Athletes, which will work at the Croatian Olympic Committee. She is the first Olympic medallist (bronze) for Croatia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as the first Olympic medallist in archery in individual competition for women. After the Tokyo Olympics, she decided to end her active sports career and turn a new page in her life with an academic degree. Since 2019, she has been working in a dual career: as a DC ambassador in the Sinergy project for sports culture, Olympic values and dual careers in sport and as a member of the Commission for Dual Careers in Sport and Athletes Commission in the Croatian Olympic Committee. As an athlete and student, ambassador and member of the Commissions, she has a lot of experience in helping active, former and future athletes who need assistance with dual careers. She said she “hopes to be as successful in this position as she was in her sports career.”
During the last year, EAS supported the President of the Croatian Commission for Dual Careers in Sport, Prof. Romana Caput-Jogunica, in her efforts to finalize the whole process related to the Centre.
On March 24 the sixth virtual EAS cafè focused on the good practices and opportunities for dual career service providers. Antonino Bianco, Professor of Sports Sciences and Deputy Dean for International Relations at the University of Palermo moderated the event offering good practices at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), Spain, and future educational opportunities for dual career service providers through the ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership STARTING11 platform.
The outstanding dual career approach at UCAM was illustrated by Prof. Antonio Sanchez-Pato and Prof. Alejandro Leiva-Arcas, Dean and Deputy Director of the Faculty of Sport at UCAM, respectively. Since 2011, UCAM established a solid dual career service for 425 Spanish athletes as students (males 55%, females 45%) competing in 35 different sports disciplines and cooperated in more than ten ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnerships in dual career. In particular, during the last two Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, UCAM Student-athletes won 24 (Rio 2016: 15 Olympic, 9 Paralympic) and 27 (Tokyo 2020: 20 Olympic, 7 Paralympic) medals. The dual career programme at UCAM is based on four pillars: Recruitment, Administrative assistance, Academic support, and Research development. Recruitment provides 90% full scholarships and 10% discount fees (range 20-50%), including a possibility to extend the scholarship to family members in case of relocation. Whilst the administrative assistance is managed by an academic manager helping with administrative issues and financial support, the academic support involves both professors and students with mentoring and study buddy roles, respectively. Through Research, UCAM approaches dual career as an ongoing laboratory and establishes cooperation with several academic institutions and sport bodies. In fact, in 2015 UCAM published the handbook “An Innovative European Sports Tutorship Model of the Dual Career of Student-Athletes” (https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/eplus-project-details#project/603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP), in 2021 a special issue on Dual Career of the peer-review journal of UCAM “Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte” encompassing 11 international scientific contributions (https://ccd.ucam.edu/index.php/revista/issue/view/87), and in 2022 the Guidelines to Promote the Dual Career of Athletes-Students (Methodology for Universities and Manual for Authorities) within the More Than Gold ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership (https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/eplus-project-details#project/603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP). Finally, UCAM will host in Cartagena, Spain, the 2022 EAS Annual Conference and General Assembly next September 28-30.
Dennis van Vlaanderen and Wolfgang Stockinger Manager of Elite Sport & Education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science and CEO of TW1N illustrated the educational platform for dual career service providers developed within the ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership STARTING11 to facilitate the implementation and professionalize dual career practice at sport, education and the labour market levels. In having in mind the needs of the dual career practitioner and supporter, the ready-made and fully customizable digital tools pertains three main service areas: Manage, Train, and Counsel. In particular, the manage area helps building the political, theoretical and infrastructural know-how to implement and administrate dual career services as well as to efficiently communicate towards the most relevant dual career stakeholders. The train aims to prepare, sensitize and empower athletes by providing them with knowledge, inspiration and skills to successfully pursue their dual careers. The Counsel area intends to professionalize interpersonal counselling services to foster the coping, decision-making and planning capability of athletes during career transitions. At the end of their presentation, Dennis van Vlaanderen and Wolfgang Stockinger invited the participants to attend the STARTING 11 Final Conference at the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium next May 12, 2022. The Event will allow to explore the European Dual Career Toolkit first-hand, to attend presentations and workshops of international dual career experts and high-performance athletes, and to network with like-minded professionals from across Europe. The link for further information and registration ihttps://starting11.eu/conference/.
After the general discussion, Prof. Bianco complimented with the speakers and especially appreciated the outputs of their Collaborative Partnerships, which provide useful material freely accessible online for the benefit of dual career service providers.
The second transnational meeting of the European Para-Limits project (https://paralimits.eu) was held at the Foro Italico University in Rome on December 16, 2021. During the meeting, the progress of the collection of the eminence-base knowledge collected through an international survey was presented and further activities were envisioned. The partners also agreed on the deadlines for the next tasks and on the steps to present the findings. In particular, it was envisioned to disseminate the project and the outcomes of its activities at the 2022 Annual EAS Conference to be held at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) in Cartagena, Spain. On 30-31 May and 1 June, 2022, the next transnational meeting will be held at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the first months of the project the partners recognized their enthusiastic commitment in accomplishing the preliminary phases of Para-Limits and they were very satisfied by the great work carried out.
Dear friends of dual career,
On behalf of the EAS Executive Committee I would like to inform you that the fifth EAS Virtual Cafè on “Well-being and mental health for Dual Career athletes at high School level” will be held on December 10, 2021 (from 12:00 CET).
In particular, Dr. Paola Deiana (Director Office V Italian Ministry of Education), Dr. Jožef Križaj (Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana) and Ole Keldorf (Head of Sport at Elite Sports Academy Aarhus) will illustrate the Italian, Slovenian, and Danish approach to dual career at high school level, and will present their observations and concerns on well-being and mental health of the student-athletes during and after COVID pandemic.
Dr. Masar Gjaka (Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Movement Science, UBT College, Pristina, Kosovo) will moderate the event.
You can Join Zoom Meeting
https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/j/96295261510
Meeting ID: 962 9526 1510
Should you have any additional requests or questions, feel free to contact me.
Best,
Laura Capranica
Professor
EAS president
Partners of the project Education Model for Parents of Athletes in Academics (EMPATIA) met on October 29 in person in Rome, with some partners attending also online, reviewing the main project outcomes and setting the final tasks before the project officially concludes the end of November.
EMPATIA offers an educational platform for parents and guardians of athletes in education. Useful resource materials are offered within the online education modules in multiple languages and are available through the official website of the project.
Apart of the resources also three academic research papers have been published:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101833
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243354
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257719
The project has been presented and disseminated by project partners across Europe, and also beyond.
At the final meeting all the work packages have been presented and analysed, each partner presented their activities.
The EMPATIA project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, led by the University of Ljubljana. The consortium is composed of 10 partners, representing universities, institutes and sports bodies from four countries and two European networks,
For more information, please see www.empatiasport.eu
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.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu