Sportupps: sport-based entrepreneurship and startupps

The project “Sportups: sport-based entrepreneurship and startups” involves and brings together a group of three organizations actively engaged in sports, social entrepreneurship and youth sector. Starting from the concept that the sport can be used as tool for fostering entrepreneurship, promoting dual careers of athletes and supporting good governance in sport, the projects aims to collect all the partners’ good practices in the sphere of sport entrepreneurship and sport-based startups and to design and test an innovative training module combining sport training and acquisition of basic entrepreneurship skills. The training module consist of general principles to be followed when designing training programs for athletes and young people involved in sport, based on the integrative approach of combining sport activities with entrepreneurial tools, frameworks and thinking. The Sportups training module contain innovative tools and techniques especially created to accompany training activities in order to foster entrepreneurship thinking and skills acquisition and to create an innovative and much needed model for transition to the post-sport careers. It includes high quality pre-designed training techniques complemented with case studies and best practices examples for trainers and coaches ready to be used in different sport activities. The partnership carries some preliminary research and then it adopts and test the training module in 3 countries with the collaboration of experienced trainers and coaches, 3 sport teams and more than 60 young sportspeople and coaches.The project is relevant to more general European strategic priorities in the field of sport. Its concept is based on the principals stated in the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes Recommended Policy Actions in Support of Dual Careers in High - Performance Sport, as the project:- Supports the safeguarding of the development of young athletes by providing awareness-raising activities of the importance of balance between education and sport training and early developing of awareness that sport - Encourages the balance and integration between sports training and education and, at a later stage of life, the balance between sports training and employment by creating training module combining sport activities with entrepreneurship training- Will generate knowledge and case study example that can be further exploited and possibly lead to the introduction and implementation of dual career programmes based on entrepreneurship education;- Proposes a training module that is based on the combination between sports training and general education in the framework of a lifelong learning strategy; - Will raise the quality of the supporting services offered by coaches and trainers including psychological, educational and career assistance; - Promotes collaboration with athletes' social support network (e.g. coaches, peers, parents, players associations and sport clubs/organisations).In addition, the Sportups project corresponds directly to the Communication on sport (2011) : developing the European dimension in sport and it is consistent with the European Union Work Plan for Sport (2014-2017) as it focuses on:- the integrity of sport, in particular the protection of minors, and good governance;- the economic dimension of sport, in particular economic benefits of sport and innovation;- Sport and society, in particular HEPA, employment in sport as well as education and training in sport.