Sport Professions – Education, Employment, Development
Sport is a powerful tool for socioeconomic development and personal and collective wellbeing. In research and higher education this involves the expansion of Physical Education into Sport Science, accounting for much wider scope and new science, implications and job market needs: in teaching, training, management, health, social work, and so on.
Many Western Balkan countries, with their growing economies and developmental prospects, are becoming aware of these new potentialities, particularly as they look at the European Union’s accession policies, but they need to fill a gap.
Based on two previous Tempus projects conducted by the EU Partners in Albania, Kosovo (under UNSC Resolution 1244/99) and FYRoM to implement the Bologna Process and an initial curricular reform, this new project aims at:
- extending the reform to other Western Balkan Universities and to Serbia, fostering harmonisation in the region and with the European Union;
- developing a common approach to Sport Science accounting for modern standards and the manifold potentialities of sectorial qualification in sport as related to health, education, employment, development;
- addressing the shared national priority personal services/sports and the regional priority vocational training with a joint, vocationally oriented Master and Lifelong Learning Programme targeting Sport Science professions, with a common core in line with the European standards, and specialisations with diverse learning outcomes and competencies to meet local needs and personal preferences.
Intensive Modules will be offered in various Western Balkan locations and flexibly combined with existing curricula according to specialisation, supported by vocational training and online work. The Master, involving a 1-year (60 ECTS) initial qualification (training), and a 2nd year with field and thesis work (60 ECTS) allowing different specialisations (e.g. health, management), will be accredited and sustained in the various countries, disseminated and recognised throughout the region and at European level, serving as basis for the establishment of Lifelong Learning Programme to acquire new competencies in sport.
