EVENTS
Dear EAS Members and Friends, the EAS Executive Committee wishes you a healthy 2020 Easter!
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic is strongly affecting our life, causing a great distress or other unforeseen situations.
This is the time to give!
In being aware that any support could make a difference and be greatly appreciated, many of us are actively involved in new processes at educational and/or sport levels to sustain the dual career of our youth. Hopefully, these novel approaches to the solution of unexpected difficulties will help us advancing in new directions once this terrible period will be over.
In the past years, this newsletter was intended also to update on the most recent EAS activities and to anticipate future ones. This year, we will limit the information only to recent past, because the situation does not allow us to have a clear picture of the future. Surely, we will keep you informed through our website (www.dualcareer.eu) and by emails.
Recent activities
January 13-14: The 3rd transnational meeting of the Dual Career for Women Athletes (DONA) ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership programme was held in Modena, Italy to discuss the current status of the recent activities of the project. DONA 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).
January 24-25: The activities of EAS have been presented at the International Conference “When the School starts running” organized in Rome (Italy). The Conference was organized in occasion of the 21st Miguel’s Race (the 10-km Miguel’s Race involving around 10,000 participants.
January 30: EAS was present at 7th Erasmus+ Sport InfoDay organized by the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) to update on the funding opportunities in sport, which include also cooperation on dual career.
February 6-7: Sport Ireland Institute hosted the meeting of the ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership EMPATIA in Dublin, Ireland, to finalize the content of the EMPATIA educational programme on dual career parenting. Coordinated by the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the EMPATIA team involves the INSEP (France), the University of Rome Foro Italico and the Italian Olympic Committee (Ily), the University of Coimbra and the Ginásio Clube Figueirense (Portugal), the EUSA Institute (Slovenia), the University of Limerick and the Sport Ireland Institute (Ireland), and the European Athlete as Student (EAS) Dual Career Network (Malta).
February 24: The meeting of the Consultative Committee Bureau of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) of the Council of Europe was held in Paris, France to discuss the revised Terms of References and the draft agenda of the plenary meeting of the Consultative Committee. Chaired by Mr Jens Sejer Andersen – PLAY THE GAME, the Bureau includes the Vice Chair Mr Michal Buchel – FIAS, Mr Carlos Cardoso – ENGSO, Ms Paulina Tomczyk – EU Athletes; Ms Annette Wachter – EGLSF; Ms. Laura Capranica – EAS; and Mr Michael TRINKER, EPAS Deputy Executive Secretary.
February 26-28: The transantional meeting of the Starting11 ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership was held in Luxembourg to plan further development of the European dual career toolkit. Furthermore, the Starting11 platform has been launched (https://starting11.eu), coordinated by the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (Netherlands) in cooperation with the CREPS Toulouse (France), the German University Sport Federation (ADH – Germany), the Sportlycee Luxembourg (SplL – Luxembourg), the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS – England), and the European Athlete as Student (EAS) Dual Career Network (Malta).
The EAS website publicized two editorial activities: The call for contributions for the special issue of Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte, which aims to be a meeting point for research resulting from EU- funded projects withing the ERASMUS+Sport Programme; and the manuscript Career Development and Transition of Athletes: The International Society of Sports Psychology Position Stand Revised by Natalia B. Stambulova, Tatiana V. Ryba and Kristoffer Henriksen.
European Projects
One of the main pillar of EAS is the commitment and support of all the European Collaborative Partnerships focused on dual career. In particular, this is a brief update on the projects where EAS is currently involved:
AMID (590400-EPP-1-2017-1-AT-SPO-SCP) 2018-2020. Coordinated by the University of Salzburg (Austria), the project aims to provide evidence- and eminence-base guidelines on student-athletes who relocate/migrate to pursue their academic and/or sport careers. Despite due to the Covid-19 the transnational meeting scheduled in March 2020 was cancelled, during this final phase of the project the Partners will collaborate to produce recommendations to provide approaches to the stakeholders from sports, politics and education based on the information deriving from a literature review, focus groups, interviews and surveys. Further information is available at www.amid-project.eu.
EMPATIA (590437-EPP-1-2017-1-SI-SPO-SCP) 2018-2020. Coordinated by the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the focus is on the roles of parents as supporters of dual careers of their children. The online educational programme is in its final developmental phase and was supposed to be tested next May during dedicated national workshops with the parents. Due to the Covid-19 constraint, possible adjustments will be necessary. Further information is available at www.empatiasport.eu.
DONA (2018-3716/001-001) 2019-2021. Coordinated by the Associació Esportiva Carles Vallbona-AEC (Spain), DONA aims to investigate, develop and test a dual career club-based methodology for enhancing women’s volleyball players. During last months, DONA has smoothly progressed with awareness raising events organized in Granollers, Istres, Modena and Zebbug. The Partners designed and delivered the monitoring structure of the pilot programme and feedback will be collected at the four Partner clubs during the implementation phase.
Ed-Media (2018-2078/001-001) 2019-2020. Coordinated by the University of Kaunas (Lithuania), Ed-Media aims to proactively shape a positive image of athletes as students. At present, the findings of thorough gap, desk, SWOT and PESTEL analyses on dual career carried out in the participating Member States are directing the development of specific recommendations.
More Than Gold (603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP). 2019-2020. Coordinated by the University of Latvia (Latvia), at present MTG is developing dual career guidelines for higher education institutes. Recently, more than 60 European universities provided their opinion on the priority and feasibility of specific recommendations for the development and implementation of dual career.
SportOpensSchool (603266-EPP-1-2018-1-IT-SPO-SCP). 2019-2020. Coordinated by CUS Pavova (Italy), SOS developed an innovative teaching module for physical activity teachers based on three main pillars: health education; fair play education; and development of skills and abilities. The Covid-19 emergency is affecting also the implementation of the project, with the transnational meeting to be held in Portugal to be rearranged.
Starting11 (60313-EPP-1-2018-1-NL-SPO-SCP). 2019-2021. Coordinated by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences-AUAS (Netherlands), the project aims to create the very first European Dual Career Toolkit for service providers. After the transnational meeting held in Luxembourg at the end of February, to inform on the advancement of the project activities Starting11 launched its official website www.starting11.eu.
Save the date
April 21, 2020 is the extended deadline for submission of ERASMUS+Sport applications within the Call for proposals 2020. This funding opportunity is addressing dual career among its priorities.
September 17-19, 2020 in Hamburg (Germany) the 17th EAS Conference 2020 will be held next under the organization of the University Sport Service Hamburg. This event is the European dual career knowledge-hub and the best opportunity to disseminate the findings of the EU-funded projects and activities carried out on behalf of athletes as students.
Send a virtual hug to your Dual Career friends during the COVID-19 emergercy
In support of our community dedicated to improving the well-being of athletes as students EAS is actively responding to the COVID-19 emergency. You can fight the COVID-19’s stay-alone-period by sending a “virtual hug” (by e-mail, WhatsApp, social media) to a good friend or a good colleague of yours. This could be a good opportunity to share your commitment in dual career and to engage new members of our Network.
A special thank for the loyalty and commitment of the EAS Executive Committee and the Members of our Network in supporting the advancement of a European dual career culture.
We wish all the best for the health and wellbeing of you and your loved ones. Yours sincerely,
Laura Capranica on behalf of the EAS Executive Committee
Luxembourg has been in the international media in the last few days mainly because of the switch to a free “public transport for everyone”. During the breaks of the three-day meeting of the ERASMUS + funded project STARTING 11, this sustainable decision was always an issue.
The main topic, however, was the further development and specification of the instruments for improving the situation of the dual career in the countries of the European Union.
In several workshops and small groups, the representatives of the seven partner institutions worked, among other things, in the areas of “advice in dual careers”, “framework conditions of dual careers” or “management of dual careers”.
It was exciting to see that the project partners, including the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) from England, met for the first time after Brexit, which will have no direct impact on the project. Because of a favorable transitional arrangement for the ERASMUS + program, it is possible that the very active partner from Great Britain can work as a full member until the end of the project.
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)
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).
The EMPATIA project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union as a Sports Collaborative Partnership. Its aim is to promote and implement dual career, especially targeting parents and guardians of talented and elite athletes who have primary responsibilities in supporting the combination of sport and education careers of their progeny for a holistic development as future European citizens and employees.
For more information on EMPATIA and topic of dual career, please visit the official website, or follow the project on Facebook and Twitter under @EmpatiaSport.
On January 30, 2020 Laura Capranica, Ole Keldorf and Risto Keskitalo represented EAS at the 7th Erasmus+ Sport InfoDay organized by the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), which was opened by Ms. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth (https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus…/…/infoday-sports-2019_en).
The event aimed to provide information on the EU funding opportunities to the 550 attendants representing different organizations, institutions, and agencies, and to the attendants via webinar.
The EAS representatives had the opportunity to meet members of the European Commission and the Executive Agency, to discuss the next steps of the on going projects, and to envisage future cooperation on dual career.
The organizing committee of the 21st Miguel’s Race (the 10-km Miguel’s Race involving around 10,000 participants to commemorate the young Argentine poet and runner Miguel Benacio Sánchez killed in 1978 during the Argentine dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla) in cooperation with the Italian Federation of Athletics (FIDAL) and the Italian Union of Sport for All (UISP) on January 24-25, 2020 organized the conference “If the School Starts Running” in Rome, Italy.
The Italian Ministry of Youth and Sports (Vincenzo Spatafora) and the Vice Ministry of Education (Anna Ascani), the FIDAL President (Alfio Giomi), and the UISP President (Vincenza Manco), presented the vision of Italian policy makers on sport and education.
In addressing the audience on the relevance of sport for educating the responsibility, the EAS President, Laura Capranica, presented the main challenges, opportunities and activities in dual career, including the education of parents and of media in support of student-athletes.
In focus of the first day have been the recent working packages and their current status. Associació Esportiva Carles Vallbona (SPA) gave an update on the current project management status, followed by a presentation and discussion of the “pilot program” developed by De SportMaatschappij Foundation (NED).
EAS (MLT) presented the preparation for the selection & set-up of an “International Women DC Ambassador Network” and the next steps following, when the interviews based on the guidelines will be delivered by the involved clubs.
During a break, participants have had a guided tour through the “Dome” of the most successful Volleyball Club in Italy, Pannini Modena and met the former top player and actual coach of the German National Team, Andrea Giani.
After that, the clubs presented their activities related to the pilot program and their activities within the project itself.
University Ljubljana presented then the design of the monitoring and evaluation methodology, Partners’ role – Structure of partners providing data – Intellectual Output and the planned intellectual output.
The first day ended with a common panel discussion with the partners of the SCORES E+ project, which as well contributes to Dual Career development in Europe and focuses on employability and supporting services, and therefore the topic “Promote education in and through sport with special focus on skills development”.
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).
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
to help athletes pursuing their sport and academic careers, in 2019 EAS actively committed in a continuous exchange between institutions and experts working in the field of dual career across Europe.
The fruitful partnerships with the European Commission, the Council of Europe, EUSA and FISU have been consolidated through the participation in relevant events at European (e.g, the European Sport Forum, the meetings of the EU Expert Group “Skills and Human Resources Development in Sport”, the cluster meeting: “The role of sport in education: enhancing skills development and dual careers perspectives”, the meetings of the Bureau of the “Consultative Committee of EPAS – Council of Europe”), and established partnerships with countries beyond Europe (Bosnia, Taiwan)
The 2019 annual EAS Conference and General Assembly held in Falun, Sweden represented the dual career knowledge hub and a valuable opportunity to update our members on the best practices and on-going activities in dual career.
The contribution to a European dual career culture through Erasmus+ Cooperative Partnerships, EAS contributed 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 a dual career toolkit (Starting 11).
Furthermore, through its website, EAS contributed to the dissemination of publications of dual career guidelines at national levels (Sweden), at sports clubs (ICDC), and dual career approach at national level (Italy). Finally, EAS co-authored with FISU the first international survey on dual career, and awarded the “Bengt Nybelius Scholarship” to a young Kosovar researcher at its annual conference.
In preparation for a gratifying dual career 2020, we invite you to take advantages of the call for European Collaborative Partnerships, and to share best practices, outcomes of collaborative projects, and research findings by participating in the 17th Annual Conference of EAS to be held at the University of Hamburg, Germany next September 17-19.
We strongly encourage you to be proactive in the dissemination of the dual career culture and to renew your 2020 EAS membership through the link http://www.dualcareer.eu/membership/.
The Executive Board of EAS wishes you and your family a year 2020 full of peace and happiness.
On behalf of the board
Prof. Laura Capranica, EAS President
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.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu