Gaming and electronic sports has increased in recent years among students in vocational education in northern Europe. eSport has become a part of everyday life among students. Gaming can cause challenges in life management for students, affecting studies negatively. eSport can also increase motivation, integration and the graduation rate if eSport is handeld didactically and pedagogically well by educators. The partner network schools have started eSport education in recent years and have identified clear benefits of supporting student well-being in eSport in our vocational educations. Student motivation, retention and integration of culturally diverse individuals have been positively affected by professionally arranged eSport education. Therefore we see a clear need to benchmark and further eSport on an international level with schools and organizations committed to eSport education. The target group of the project is students aged 16-21 engaged in eSport. The project especially focuses on students in the risk of dropping out, disadvantaged groups and students from different cultural backgrounds. The secondary target group is teachers and educational staff developing pedagogy in eSport. The aim of the project is to increase student physical and mental well-being in eSport through networking, benchmarking, developing new didactic and pedagogical methods. In addition to mobility and benchmarking results of the project will be a eSport handbook for students and a report on best practises in eSport education. Furthermore we aim to motivate and support students, increase student retention and graduation, and integrate students with different cultural backgrounds and risk groups. Long term benefit of the project include awareness of risks and possibilities in eSport education and new pedagogical methods for furthering wellbeig in eSport. The eSport handbook will help gamers keep a sound life balance, understand the importance of a vocational degree and develop as professional players.
Esport as a hobby, part of studies and as a profession has increased in recent years among students in vocational education in northern Europe. Esport in vocational education was quite new in 2018 when Prakticum (FI), Teknikum (SWE) and Arna vgs. (NO) decided to start cooperating on the topic. In this project we have developed esport education and coaching in vocational education and published findings in an esport handbook för students. The focus as been on physical and mental health in esport and life management skills for students. We believe that combining physical and mental wellbeing with esports give esport students increased study motivation, better study results, decreases dropouts and decreases the risk for marginalization. Esport can also contribute to developing social and teamworking skills, as well as many other skills for working life. Special attention was given to support for students in the risk of dropping out of school, disadvantaged groups and students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The main target group was teachers and students age 16-21 involved in esport in the partner schools. As the project evolved secondary target groups emerged; esport organizations, esport teams, other schools and esporters outside the partner organizations. Six teachers (two from each country) and 104 different students took part in the project. The working group of the project consisted of two teachers from Finland, Sweden and Norway whom met four times to benchmark best practices, develop esport education and published an esport handbook for students. Six students from respective countries met in Helsinki and Växjö to pilot new pedagogical methods and coaching in esport education. Students also participated in piloting and developing the esport handbook. The mobility with students planned to Norway was held on distance due to corona. The working language of the project network was Swedish, but we communicate externally in English to spread results, enlarge our network in esport and further our thoughts of physical and mental wellbeing in esport. This network will 2021-2023 continue to develop esport in vocational education with a focus on esport students health, wellbeing and life management skills in the Erasmus+ project Excellence in esport. Feel free to contact us with any collaboration suggestions in developing esport education. Also make use of the student's handbook in esport produced in this project and spread it freely throughout your own networks. You can find the handbook in the Erasmus+ results platform and Prakticums webpage; https://prakticum.fi/om-prakticum/projekt/internationella-projekt/student-wellbeing-through-esport.