According to research, one-third of participants aged 10 to 17 withdraw from sports each year as they believe that sport takes up too much of their time and prevents them from pursuing other things in life (e.g. to study). More effort is thus needed to coordinate and support athletes’ dual careers to keep talented young people in sports and educational systems and make them aware of the benefits of a dual career. Preparing Young Athletes for Transitions, is an action research project amongst sports schools which emphasise a dual-career path for their students. Research has discovered that young athletes face a number of challenges when migrating to play professional sports abroad. The project aims to equip young student-athletes, aged 13-15, from the participating nations with the necessary knowledge, tools and skills to face these challenges and succeed in their choice of sporting career. It also aims to equip trainers, stakeholders and parents to form a sound support base for these athletes. This project will produce a model of good practice methods for similar schools and other educational settings. It complements the schools' ethos, as in previous activities, in that the project actions will encourage students to be active members of society within a European culture. The project's outputs will further enhance the European body of research on sports and dual careers. Students (13 from each of the three countries in every exchange of students) and staff (3 from each of the three countries in every exchange of students as well as in every transnational meeting) will attend training sessions and lessons with each other in the partner countries as well as attend workshops and other organised activities related to transitional awareness (see attachment), the aim being to understand better what it means to live in another country, with a different culture, to be away from home, to experience challenges with language, travel, philosophies of training, making new friends, doing chores etc. The aim being that if these young athletes migrate to play professional sport overseas, they would have already been given a taste of what it feels like. Too many athletes have reported returning back to their country due to feeling homesick and unable to cope in the country they would have migrated too. We hope that if our young athletes are better prepared by giving them a taste of what may come about in the future they would be better prepared to survive and enhance their sporting career. The staff, parents and stakeholders involved with these students play a big part in further disseminating the experiences gained with other students, parents and staff in the future and thus a conference in each country will take place in conjunction with the exchanges. Athletes who have already gone through migratory transitions will be involved in this project to help guide the young athletes.Since this is an action research project each mobility will be evaluated through interviews, focus groups, and anonymous feedback sheets with participants so that mobilities will be further enhanced throughout the project and so that the final working document serves as a survival kit for future young athletes experiencing transitions to refer to when facing similar challenges.
According to research, one-third of participants aged 10 to 17 withdraw from sports each year as they believe that sport takes up too much of their time and prevents them from pursuing other things in life (e.g. to study). More effort is thus needed to coordinate and support athletes’ dual careers to keep talented young people in sports and educational systems and make them aware of the benefits of a dual career. Preparing Young Athletes for Transitions, is an action research project amongst sports schools which emphasise a dual-career path for their students. Research has discovered that young athletes face a number of challenges when migrating to play professional sports abroad. The project has helped to equip young student-athletes, aged 13-15, from the participating nations with the necessary knowledge, tools and skills to face these challenges and succeed in their choice of sporting career. It also helped to equip trainers, stakeholders and parents to form a sound support base for these athletes. This project's aim was also to produce a model of good practice methods for similar schools and other educational settings. It complements the schools' ethos, as in previous activities, in that the project actions have encouraged students to be active members of society within a European culture. The project's outputs will further enhance the European body of research on sports and dual careers. Students (13 from each of the three countries in every exchange of students) and staff (3 from each of the three countries in every exchange of students as well as in every transnational meeting) have attended training sessions and lessons with each other in the partner countries as well as attended workshops and other organised activities related to transitional awareness (see attachment), the aim being to understand better what it means to live in another country, with a different culture, to be away from home, to experience challenges with language, travel, philosophies of training, making new friends, doing chores etc. The aim being that if these young athletes migrate to play professional sport overseas, they would have already been given a taste of what it feels like. Too many athletes have reported returning back to their country due to feeling homesick and unable to cope in the country they would have migrated too. We hope that if our young athletes are better prepared by giving them a taste of what may come about in the future they would be better prepared to survive and enhance their sporting career. The staff, parents and stakeholders involved with these students play a big part in further disseminating the experiences gained with other students, parents and staff in the future and thus a conference in each country has take place in conjunction with the exchanges. Athletes who have already gone through migratory transitions have been involved in this project to help guide the young athletes.Since this is an action research project each mobility was evaluated through interviews, focus groups, and anonymous feedback sheets with participants so that mobilities would be further enhanced throughout the project.