News - European Network of Sport Education

After publishing their handbook, interactive toolkit and inter-cultural sensitivity survey, EDU:PACT is ready for their final conference on:

2nd of March 2021, 09:30 - 12:00 (CET)

Research indicates that many physical education teachers and coaches have not received formal training on working with diverse groups, and lack professional competences in the area of intercultural education.

So what are the current challenges for PE teachers and coaches when they are teaching culturally, ethnically and linguistically heterogeneous classes of pupils or athletes?

This question will be answered by the leading experts on the field in an interactive online conference, that will also provide an insight into the results and tools developed in the #Erasmus+ project EDU:PACT!

You can find more about the event and register here!

After two years of hard work, the Blueprint for Skills Cooperation and Employment in Active Leisure project is officially concluded. The outcome has been to review, test and trial the delivery of a fully quality assured education and training programme for current and future instructors and animators in the Active Leisure sector.

The project focused on developing new skills for current and future workers, for improving employability of young people, and supporting entrepreneurship and growth across the sector. The four main objectives of the project were:

To create an evidence base to identify skills gaps in the active leisure sector.
To promote the benefits of the learning experience and gaining of the qualifications for developing wider skills for employability and personal well-being as well as supporting the growth of the community.
The contribution of active leisure to the employability of young people and the creation of jobs in the sport and active leisure-related labour markets.
To develop a Blueprint for Skills Cooperation and Employment in Active Leisure.

These goals were achieved through a combination of eleven different intellectual outputs, which combine to form the future Blueprint for the Active Leisure sector. You can find the compendium of all outputs here.

In addition, as part of the project, a study on the trends and future skills needed in the sector (Foresight for the Fitness Sector: Results from a European Delphi Study and Its Relevance in the Time of COVID-19) has been published by members of the project.

COVID-19 has spotlighted the value of good health and resilience (physical, mental, social and economic). Almost a quarter of the world’s population have an underlying health condition which increases their vulnerability to the virus. Mental health issues have increased exponentially during the pandemic, particularly amongst youth. Physical inactivity can now be considered as a parallel pandemic, contributing to 5 million premature deaths annually.

It is for these reasons, quality physical education represents a major component in UNESCO’s new COVID-19 recovery flagship “Fit for Life” which has been designed to respond to the immediate physical and mental health effects of the current health pandemic.

In this context, UNESCO with the financial support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is launching, during the Global Sports Week (1 to 5 February 2021), two new action-oriented publications on Quality Physical Education (QPE):

Making the case for inclusive Quality Physical Education policy development: A Policy Brief
How to influence the development of Quality Physical Education policy: A policy Advocacy Toolkit for Youth

Building on the success of the Quality physical Education Policy Project, the evidence-based publications have been developed by UNESCO to support Member States to accelerate COVID-19 recovery efforts and build a “new normal” which is founded on inclusion and resilience. QPE is framed as a low cost/high impact investment and values pathway with manifold positive physical, mental, developmental and educational outcomes.

Read the entire project outline here.

"Anti-doping education is currently at an early stage and there are several needs that must be addressed".

New Erasmus+ project Virtual Reality Approach to Anti-Doping Learning (VIRAL) aims to improve anti-doping education in a groundbreaking way. ENSE is now part of this exciting project!

The project argues that anti-doping education should be based on state-of-art learning pedagogies and it should be concerned with changing mindsets, intentions and behaviours towards doping use by reducing the risk factors and promoting the protective factors against doping.

In order to achieve this, VIRAL will follow these methods:

Utilize cutting-edge behavioural science research about the risk and protective factors against doping use in amateur and grassroots sports to inform the development of an anti-doping Virtual Reality program aiming to assist in the prevention of doping.
Use an "open innovation" framework to co-design the anti-doping virtual reality program, through the active collaboration of VR designers and young people engaged in amateur and grassroots sports.
Apply and evaluate the effectiveness of the doping prevention Virtual Reality program in changing young people's learning, motivation, beliefs and behaviour towards the use of PAES, and in promoting a more positive mentality about drug-free and health-enhancing physical activity and sports.
Train the trainers on how to promote the Virtual Reality program into several the project’s target groups, namely adolescents and young competitive and recreational athletes.