Developing Sports Managers and Leaders Employability Across Europe

Background The European sports and leisure sector is accepted to have significant economic growth potential (European Commission, 2018). However, a professional managerial workforce is vital to ensure its sustainable impact. Pre-Covid, the European (including the UK) sports labour market had seen a 19.2% growth since 2011 (ESSA-Sport, 2020) but had structural workforce challenges, including an ageing managerial force, and it must now establish talent development, retention and employability strategies. Objectives This project aims to support industry stakeholders in improving sports' economic and social impact by creating workforce planning and employability frameworks that develop existing and future sports managers. The project aims to influence employability practices within the sport management discipline and to establish the need for individualistic labour market information (LMI) to complement traditional workforce planning data by analysing the career attitudes of students and sports managers. Implementation Through the adoption of collaborative leadership and transdisciplinary principles, the project coalition of two national and international employer organisations, an international discipline organisation and six Universities have driven disciplinary, interdisciplinary and industry-focused research and consultation to create policy guidelines and practical toolkits to support workforce planning, development and employability of sport managers across Europe. Achievements Throughout the project lifecycle, research, consultation, and dissemination activities have engaged over 250 sport management academics, over 500 sport management students, 350 sports managers and leaders and interdisciplinary leaders to establish strategic workforce planning and workforce development policy recommendations and a discipline-focused employability framework, best practice examples and toolkit to support the development of future and existing sport managers.