PROmoting DUal Career through Education of young journalists - PRODUCE

The key objective of PROUCE was to develop and improve skills and educate young reporters through volunteering at university sports events in Europe, while also promoting dual career of athletes.

Every year more than 4000 student-athletes from 40 countries and more than 400 Universities participate at EUSA Universities sports events and we are constantly finding new ways to improve the promotion of their achievements and involve more athletes and countries at EUSA events. On the other side, hundreds of volunteers help organizing events and our job is to make their experience worthwhile so they can continue growing and becoming leaders of tomorrow. This project is about combining the two so we can give the best knowledge to our volunteers and to motivate and encourage them to continue promoting dual careers of athletes at international, national and local level and to go step forward in becoming game changers.

With EUSA as project coordinators, the key objective of PRODUCE was to develop and improve skills and educate young reporters through volunteering at European Universities Championships and Games while also promoting dual career of athletes.

The project’s aim was to create both an educational peer to peer network among young journalists in Europe while simultaneously providing guidelines for active learning, giving non-formal knowledge to budding reporters through practical experience at various European Universities Championships in 2019 and national university sport event in 2021.

PRODUCE project looked to guide the young reporters while also educating trainers to share the learnt expertise with their students, with the target age being 18-25.

Although not all foreseen activities were carried out due to Covid-19 pandemics, the experiences of young reporters in university sports events in 2019 and 2021 impacted the participants in a significant way. Their experiences was shared at the PRODUCE conference held in Zagreb in 2021, and through the guidelines for the young reporters and sports events organisers.

The three-year project strived to promote dual career using successful examples of top athletes who combine both study and sport, using university sport events to promote university sport for high school students and encourage them to strive for Dual Career.

The final results of the project included educating trainers, pointing out important topics for non-formal education of young reporters and writing guidelines for improving the experience of volunteers at grassroots-level at major sport events. These guidelines will be used at EUSA and other sport events that will ensure the legacy and sustainability of the project.

Project details:

• runs for 36 months (Jan 1^st, 2019 – Dec 31^st, 2021);
• main topic is promoting education in and through sport with special focus on skills development;
• second one is supporting mobility of volunteers, coaches, managers and staff of non-profit sport organisations;
• other subjects: youth employability, volunteering, dual career;
• target groups are: Young reporters, Decision-makers in sport, Athletes, Volunteers, Event organizers;
• partner countries are Croatia, Malta, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia.

The full list of project partners:

• EUSA Institute (SLO);
• AZS Sport club Poznan (POL);
• SportIndeks (SRB);
• KK Hrvatski Dragovoljac (CRO);
• AIPS Europe (MLT).
  
  

The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. Produce card on Erasmus+ project platform: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/603073-EPP-1-2018-1-SI-SPO-SSCP