EVENTS
Following the recent publication of the European study “EU Sports Policy: Assessment and Possible Ways Forward” (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/236742/PE652-251_Study-EU-Sport-Policy.pdf), last June 29 and July 1, 2021MEP Tomasz Frankowski, Co-Chair of the European Parliament Sports Group, organized online consultations with several stakeholders.
The meeting was opened by Luka Živić, Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Floor Van Houdt, Head of Unit for Sport, European Commission, and Stanislas Frossard, Executive Secretary EPAS, Council of Europe, followed by short presentations by Ronan O’Laoire, Head of the UNODC Programme on Safeguarding Sport from Corruption and Crime, and Rafał Piechota, Director, Office of the President, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Then, the representatives of the sports organisations shared their views on priorities and provided recommendations for European policies. In particular, EAS deemed relevant to consider:
- Continuous support of the role of education in and through sport, especially in promoting social values and economic benefits for the Member States.
- A new edition of the European Year of Education through Sport (EYES) to encourage a full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which strongly affected the sport and education sectors.
- A continuous defence of the fundamental rights of sportspersons to combine sport and education by extending the EU dual careers recommendations to all the actors engaged in structured sport (e.g., athletes of all levels, coaches, sport managers, and sports media).
- Inter-sectoral cooperation for the inclusion of education in and through sport in the corporate social responsibility policies and strategies of for-profit companies.
- Support of research and monitoring of different aspects of the European sports phenomenon, including the education and career paths of the athletes, coaches, managers and media, also in light of an implementation of the qualification frameworks in sport at national and European levels.
- A full rights of citizenship for sports in the European research area by appointing a sport scientist in the European Research Council (ERC) and by including sport in the keywords of the ERC evaluation panels.
Dual Career of Student- AthLetes with disabilities as a tool for Social Inclusion: The PARA-LIMITS project (PCS-OPS-SE-1-0202-1-PPE-312226)
The EU-funded Collaborative Partnership PARA-LIMITS addresses the promotion of dual career of disabled athletes and their social inclusion opportunities, which is a Dual Career priority rarely addressed. To provide a systematic solution for the challenges of conciliating sporting career and university studies of disabled athletes, a solid basis will be scientific research and information collected on dual career for athletes with disabilities.
On June 16 the University of Rome “Foro Italico” hosted a PARA-LIMITS webinar on the state of art of the barriers, difficulties and organisation that athletes with disabilities face in undertaking their Dual Career in five Member States (Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain).
The video of the event is available at: https://youtu.be/ADOeHqHnin4
Successful project meeting to develop the European Dual Career Toolkit to promote dual careers in top-class sport in “virtual” Hamburg.
On April 21 and 22, 2021 the fifth of a total of six meetings of the partner institutions Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS), CREPS Toulouse, Sportlycée Luxembourg (SL), European Athlete as Student (EAS) and the adh (German University Sport Federation), which are strongly supported by TW1N (Project management and consultancy) took place.
The adh as the host, represented by CEO Jörg Förster and project researcher Martin Santelmann, organized and moderated the two-day meeting with the active participation of the Hamburg University Sports Team, which ensured that the breaks were active.
In addition to the presentation and discussion of the dissemination strategy for 2021, the focus was primarily on the presentation and discussion of the results from the previous three-month test phase. This was planned, coordinated and evaluated by the adh in a leading role. 15 tools developed in the areas of “Manage”, “Train” and “Counsel” were checked for their feasibility and applicability by external European stakeholders as well as internal project partners. On the basis of the feedback obtained, the final refinement of the instruments on the European Dual Career Toolkit has now begun. It is already clear that all those involved in the dual career can look forward to the introduction of the toolkit at the end of this year.
MORE INFORMATION
That project unites leading European institutions in dual career research and practice, to create the very first European Dual Career Toolkit. The lead is taken by the Amsterdam University of Applied Science, Partners are:
– Athletes as Students Network (EAS – Malta)
– Creps Toulouse (CREPS – France)
– German University Sport Federation (adh – Germany)
– Sportlycee Luxembourg (SplL – Luxembourg)
– Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS – England)
– TW1N (Project management and consultancy)
Aim of the project is to develop tailored tools to the specific demand of dual career service providers in the EU member states. Using an integrated approach, STARTING 11 empowers key actors in sport, education and the labour market to provide high quality services to athletes in all stages of their sporting career, reaching from school level to the stage of retirement from sport.
EAS is represented in that project by Prof. Laura Capranica (Foro Italico) and Ole Keldorf (Eliteidraet Scole Aarhus – ESAA). EAS Secretary General, Joerg Foerster, is representing EAS member adh within that project.
Further information on the EU project is available at https://starting11.eu/.
PIC:Matthias Hangst/SportstipendiumMRN
Dear Dual Career Friends and Colleagues,
Indeed, 2020 has been a challenging year affecting our life in many serious ways and obliging all of us to find adjustments to this unexpected crisis. Sport and education have been tremendously pressured, with closed schools and many sports events postponed to the next year. If every crisis brings also an opportunity, EAS decided to focus on the second part of the equation by continuing cooperating with European institutions and experts working in the field of Dual Career.
Whilst the COVID-19 stopped many activities, EAS discovered new ways to grow, connect, and engage its members in the development of a European Dual Career culture. Thanks to the Team of the University of Hamburg, the dual career community participated in the 17th Annual Conference in a virtual modality. Furthermore, since its re-election as a Member of the 2020-2022 Bureau of the Consultative Committee of EPAS – Council of Europe, EAS started cooperating with the International School Sport Federation-ISF (Chair), the European Olympic Committees-EOC (Vice-Chair), the European Network of Sport Education-ENSE, and The Association for International Sport for All-TAFISA.
Our Network participated in several applications to the ERASMUS+ Sport 2020 Call for Collaborative Partnerships on dual career. Three of them have been funded, specifically focusing on brand alignment strategies and corporate social responsibilities policies in Dual Career (BRAVA-DC); self-employment career option for innovative sport-focused entrepreneurship bootcamp (EL-CAMP); and on Dual Career of athletes with disabilities (PARA-LIMITS). Meantime, EAS contributed to the activities of the ongoing projects (AMID, DONA, EdMedia, EMPATIA, More than Gold, SOS, and STARTING 11), mainly through online meetings as a new way to connect. Despite EdMedia, EMPATIA, More than Gold, and SOS were expected to be finalized by December 31, 2020, due to the pandemic their final activities have been postponed to 2021.
As the European Dual Career knowledge-hub, EAS also contributed to the dissemination of knowledge through scientific publications in peer-review journals. Specifically, the activities of the Network have been published on the special issue on Dual Career of the Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte journal, whereas the outcomes of a systematic literature review and focus groups on parenting Dual Career athletes have been published in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise and PlosOne journals, respectively.
To provide further opportunities for continuing the discussion on Dual Career issues, the Network started the new adventure of virtual cafes with experts sharing their stories and visions. This novel experience dedicated to the EAS members was successfully held at the end of November. Surely, it will be consolidated in 2021 with a bimonthly cadence. I would like to invite you to reach out with any topic, thoughts, ideas, or news that help us promote Dual Career.
Whilst the COVID-19 continues to bring sickness and many of us are still isolated, we foresee a new recovered life in 2021 and look forward to meeting you in person next September during the 18th EAS Annual Conference to be organized in Lisbon during the Lisboa 2021-Capital of Sport by ICSTE-Istituto Universitario de Lisboa.
We take this opportunity to remind you to renew your 2021 EAS membership through the linkhttp://www.dualcareer.eu/membership/. We also encourage you to continue being proactive in the dissemination of EAS at local, national and international levels. Together, we will make the European Dual Career culture progress!
The Executive Board of EAS wishes you and your family a return to a life full of peace and happiness in 2021.
On November 30, 2020, EAS welcomed 101 participants of the first virtual EAS café on parenting dual career athletes, well moderated by Paolo Bouquet, President of the Unisport-Italia network.
Originating from the findings of the FISU-EAS survey during the 2017 Summer Universiade and of the EU-funded ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership Education Model for Parents of Athletes In Academics (EMPATIA, 2018-2020), and the experience of Unisport-Italia during the COVID-19 lockdown, the event addressed the relevant role of parents in support of their talented child.
Kole Gjeloshaj, Deputy Secretary General of the International School Sport Federation (ISF) and Chair of the Consultative Committee of EPAS-Council of Europe recognized the relevant role of parents in supporting the holistic development of youth athletes and during the ISF events. After having illustrated the main documents of the International Olympic Committee, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO that consider parents/family important actors of the athlete’s supportive entourage, he highlighted the need of a structured recognition and integration of parents in the actions and policies of sports organizations, as well as future studies on the parents’ perception, involvement and experience before and after a multi-sport event.
Mojca Doupona, General Director for Sport of the Ministry for education, science and sport in Slovenia, offered her personal experience as a former elite handball player, university professor, and mother of former student-athlete. After providing a thorough representation of the challenge parents face in supporting their talented child, she presented a video contribution of her daughter Tajda. The latter has been an elite swimmer and currently is a student of medicine. In presenting her personal experience, Tajda effectively summarized many relevant aspects of the parental support to the dual career of their child often acting as the link between the teachers and the coaches, envisaging a specific educational programme for helping parents in their difficult role.
Kairis Ulp, policy officer at the Sports Office of the European Commission, ensured that the European Union in its Work Plan for Sport 2021-2024 will continue considering education through and in sports relevant, as well as the contribution of the stakeholders in the development of the European sports culture. She also contributed to debate the issues that participants presented to the speakers.
Paolo Bouquet summarized the outcomes of the café and envisaged the organization of future “EAS café” to discuss specific aspects of dual career.
The ERASMUS + funded project STARTING11 reaches the next project phase. The meeting started with a review about the last months during which the upcoming testing phase was planned, including the selection of the external stakeholders, the assignment of tools to the testing partners and above all, the development of the guidelines for the upcoming testing phase.
In the main part all project partners were informed about the procedure for the upcoming testing phase. ADH who is responsible for the testing phase planned the next months of testing. Martin Santelmann, Dr. Christoph Fischer and Joerg Foerster, will also monitor the process with the goal of receiving high quality feedback from all testing partners for a good refinement on the very first European Dual Career Toolkit in 2021.
Aiming that each of the involved project partners …
- Amsterdam University of Applied Science (AUAS – Netherlands)
- Athletes as Students Network (EAS – Malta)
- German University Sport Federation (adh – Germany)
- Sportlycee Luxembourg (SplL – Luxembourg)
- Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS – England)
…. will test three tools from the different areas “Manage”, “Train” and “Counsel” in its own operation, supervise at least one external and two internal stakheolders from their own country.
The Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (Taiwan) organized the 2020 University Sports Club Workshop for the celebration of the International Day of University Sport on September 18-20, 2020.
During this event, Dr Giancarlo Condello, Assistant Professor at the University of Taipei, lectured on “Dual career – Having a vision of the future”, presenting dual career principles, European actions and best practices, the activities of the EAS, and evidence-based knowledge.
In the last years, members of the EAS Executive Board have been invited to share their expertise during the anniversary celebration of the University of Taipei, which is a well-established and well-recognized institute in Taiwan strongly engaged in international cooperations with several educational institutes worldwide.
Dr Condello also presented recent evidence obtained from the FISU-EAS survey administered to student-athletes competing at the Taipei 2017, 29th Summer Universiade. The dissemination of these findings can contribute to enhancing the student-athlete support in developing their sport and education careers.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu