This week we had our second meeting with the EU project COMPATH that was held in Murcia, hosted by UCAM Spanish Sports University. the project is about promoting employability of young student-athletes through a “competence hub on sport innovation”.
At the end of May 2023 we took part of the second meeting of the EU project COMPATH.
Together with all the project partners we followed up from the first meeting that was held in Oslo, Norway 2022 and this years’ focus was planning and brainstorming for the next steps in the COMPATH project which supports the educational, professional, and personal development of young athletes-students (18-25 years) through a ‘‘Competence Hub on Sport Innovation’’, thereby contributing to promote quality and new jobs and to driving innovation. Hopefully more people can use their passion for sports and get into the sport management industry later on.
The objective of COMPATH
The specific aims of the project are:
- to develop educational resources in order to touch both the careers and perspectives of young student-athletes by showing sports-oriented technology and 21st century skills, business world, entrepreneurship and different thinking and literacy methods; and
- to launch the ”Digital Competence Hub on Sport Innovation” where young student/athletes will acquire the skills and competencies to increase their employability in the sports industry.
Dual career
One of the project partners is European Athlete Student (EAS) and they support European athletes in combining high performance sport and education. A “dual career” means you as an athlete can both focus on your athlete career as well as a career outside of the athletic one. EAS helps in this way by helping athletes to get an education or vocational training, so that they have a safe platform to start from when their sports career is over.
The International Olympic Committee has also build up great resources for a dual career. Some of the great benefits for a dual career are:
- Health and psychological benefits such as reduced stress and increased well-being. Education allows you to give yourself a break and have a different focus or a positive distraction.
- The opportunity to enhance current skills, develop your life skills and become more well-rounded.
- The chance to expand your social networks beyond sports.
- Enhanced employment prospects with transferable skills for the future.
COMPATH in Murcia
We are happy to be currently participating in the COMPATH project. The second meeting was held in Murcia, Spain, hosted by UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia! Over two days, we were engaging in dynamic discussions focused on driving innovation in education and sport.
The meeting covered a range of crucial topics, including overall project management, the development of educational resources, gamification-based digital sport innovation, pilot schemes, dissemination strategies, and more! We are really looking forward to see student-athletes to become the next sport management professionals. More about what the meeting looked like, please see the galley below.
Stay tuned as we continue to forge ahead with the COMPATH project, aiming to transform education and sport through collective innovation!
