COACH+
A youth work oriented ‘Sport Plus’ coaching online training course for sport-for-employability organisations working with young NEETs
2022-2024
Objective of the Project
The objective of the COACH+ project is to increase the competence of sports coaches to deliver youth work based Sport Plus sessions in Sport-for-Employability (SfE) organisations that work with young NEETs. For that purpose, a comprehensive and user-friendly online training course for Sport Plus coaching methodology (MOOC), drawing on good practice from youth work, will be developed. The partnership consists of 5 organisations, each working within a particular sector: that is, the academic sector including a sports coach educational institute; social (SfE) sector (2 organisations); local sports sector and youth work in general. Activities, among other things, will include literature review, interviews with youth workers, meetings, workshops, webinars with SfE organisations and other relevant stakeholders. The course will use an experiential learning approach by emphasising active involvement of learners challenging them to integrate underlying theories of employability (soft) skills to be developed into practice, as well as to implement guiding principles from youth work. The relevance and effectiveness of the training course will be tested with university students in sport, as well as with in-service SfD coaches involved in Sport-for-Development (SfD) programmes. Various external communication and dissemination activities will be used to inform 4 types of target groups: those that work directly with young NEETs in a SfE (SfD) context (the project also intends to reach the larger part of the more than 200 registered SfD organisations located in the EU); educators responsible for the formation of sports coaches or youth workers in SfE (SfD); those working in (or coordinating) SfE (SfD) organisations but not directly involved in the sports delivery and other relevant stakeholders, such as academics, umbrella organisations representing practitioners/organisations involved in similar topics and working in relevant sectors, as well as policymakers at different levels.
Objective of the Project
The objective of the COACH+ project is to increase the competence of sports coaches to deliver youth work based Sport Plus sessions in Sport-for-Employability (SfE) organisations that work with young NEETs. For that purpose, a comprehensive and user-friendly online training course for Sport Plus coaching methodology (MOOC), drawing on good practice from youth work, will be developed. The partnership consists of 5 organisations, each working within a particular sector: that is, the academic sector including a sports coach educational institute; social (SfE) sector (2 organisations); local sports sector and youth work in general. Activities, among other things, will include literature review, interviews with youth workers, meetings, workshops, webinars with SfE organisations and other relevant stakeholders. The course will use an experiential learning approach by emphasising active involvement of learners challenging them to integrate underlying theories of employability (soft) skills to be developed into practice, as well as to implement guiding principles from youth work. The relevance and effectiveness of the training course will be tested with university students in sport, as well as with in-service SfD coaches involved in Sport-for-Development (SfD) programmes. Various external communication and dissemination activities will be used to inform 4 types of target groups: those that work directly with young NEETs in a SfE (SfD) context (the project also intends to reach the larger part of the more than 200 registered SfD organisations located in the EU); educators responsible for the formation of sports coaches or youth workers in SfE (SfD); those working in (or coordinating) SfE (SfD) organisations but not directly involved in the sports delivery and other relevant stakeholders, such as academics, umbrella organisations representing practitioners/organisations involved in similar topics and working in relevant sectors, as well as policymakers at different levels.
Webinar & Conference
On 17 April 2024 a webinar on Sport & Employability was organised to introduce our COACH+ MOOC. This MOOC (open online course) is the result of the COACH+ project (2022-2024) funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU and is free of charge. It aims to optimise the understanding of how a sport-plus approach can be used effectively to develop employability (soft) skills for young NEETs; the relevance of using a youth work approach and how to implement a successful mentoring programme and an integrated and developmental approach to monitoring and evaluation. The primary target group of the course is sport coaches who work (or intend to work) with young NEETs, but the MOOC is also relevant for other groups, such as youth workers and those working in ‘Sport-for-Development’ organisations in general and working with young people in vulnerable positions in particular. The PowerPoint slides that were presented by prof. Marc Theeboom and prof. Fred Coalter during the COACH+ webinar can be accessed here. The webinar recording (mp4) is also available.
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On May 30, 2024 a conference on soft/employability skill development through sport-plus coaching was organised. The conference marked the end of the two-year collaborative partnership ‘COACH+’, which has produced an open online training course (MOOC) on youth work oriented sport-plus coaching. Apart from an introduction to the COACH+ project and the MOOC, the conference focused on the potential and challenges to use sport-plus coaching for soft/employability skills development for young NEETs. The PowerPoint slides that were presented during the conference can be accessed here. The recording of the plenary sessions of the conference is also available.
Partners
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The COACH+ project is a cooperative partnership, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and coordinated by the Research Group Sport & Society of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE) with input and expertise from Rheinflanke GGMBH (DE), Sport 4 Life (UK), NAPOR (RS) and Netwerk Lokaal Sportbeleid (BE).
Contact
Inquiries
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#SportEmployability
Sport & Society Research Unit
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels (BE)