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TALENT

TALENT – Cloud-based education for creative sport talents

TALENT facilitates dual careers, cultivates positive behaviors, and prepares young talents for lifelong learning and early entry into professional sports.

Project Number: 101090147

Funded by: Erasmus+      Duration: 01/12/2022 – 31/05/2025


Challenge

According to the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (2012), there are various ways in the European Union for young athletes to balance their education and sports training. Many countries have established special provisions that offer scholarships, flexible schedules, and exam dates to athletes, allowing them to participate in competitions. In regular schools, several Member States have sports classes with a focus on physical education and daily sporting activities, which positively impact children.

However, it is recommended to provide more specific attention to certain sports starting from the age of 10. In areas with active local sports clubs, schools and clubs can collaborate to organize these activities. Although some schools offer additional sports classes each week, these classes are not specifically designed for elite athletes and may not always meet their training needs. Unfortunately, this specific status often leads to unique challenges and potential exclusion for talented young children, as they may face difficulties with their peers and teachers who may not fully understand the importance of supporting sports-talented children.

Innovation

TALENT aims to foster equal education, prevent exclusion, support dual careers, establish new behavioral patterns for the benefit of talented young children, and prepare them for lifelong learning and professional sports from an early age. The project will ensure the seamless integration of children into both the academic and athletic realms through a pre-operational program that aligns with the actual dual career initiative.

Action

The policies and best practices of dual career programs in European countries and sports institutions are summarised in an e-document, with each country having its own section. The partners analyse how dual career programs start and integrate into schools, as well as policies that help prevent dropouts from both school and sports.

This activity includes the gathering of information on how teachers and coaches identify talented children and the ways they support and encourage them. The interviews are conducted using a focus group methodology, which has the advantage of involving experts in the field in dynamic discussions. This approach allows us to collect a wealth of information compared to individual face-to-face interviews.

The E-STOP platform is a go-to resource for children, teachers, coaches, and parents interested in the topic of talent recognition and support. Packed with practical information, it offers guidance on identifying talent, preventing dropouts, and helping children maintain their dual-status in the future through the initiation of a dual-career programme.

The TALENT Training Course lasts 6 hours and is designed specifically for schoolteachers to help them recognise and support talented kids. All the partners will implement these courses in their respective countries. This training course represents an innovative approach to education as it caters to the unique needs of talented children. In addition to these 4 courses, we’ll also develop 20 hours of online teaching materials in collaboration with schoolteachers available on the E-STOP platform. This flexible online learning approach is particularly relevant during the COVID-19 crisis, where creative thinking is essential for effective education.

Four recommendations created to raise awareness among stakeholders: recommendations for teachers, to support the development of talented students; recommendations for parents of talented students, to support their children’s talents; recommendations for sports clubs, to support the dual career development of talented students; recommendations for decision makers as founders of educational institutions for the purpose of developing their institutions that support the development of dual careers of talented athletes.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. 

Project Partners

Organization Logo_KMOP Edu Hub
KMOP – Education and Innovation Hub (Greece)
UCILISTE CENTAR IZVRSNOSTI SPLITSKO DALMATINSKE ZUPANIJE USTANOVA ZA OBRAZOVANJE ODRASLIH (Coordinator), Croatia
CSI CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION LTD, Cyprus
SARAJEVO SUSRET KULTURA, Bosnia and Herzegovina
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO, Italy
THE EUROPEAN ATHLETE AS STUDENT, Malta
FACULTY OF SPORT AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF NIS, Serbia

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