This competence framework provides the field of Sport for Development with well-researched good practice benchmarks to raise levels of competence and improve the work of S4D practitioners.
This Competence Framework is one of six important publications from the CHANGE project (official title ‘Defining skills and competences for sport to act as a tool for the development of people and society in Europe’).
CHANGE was a three-year transnational project with nine partners, co-funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ Sport programme. It started in January 2019 and completed successfully in December 2021, following a global dissemination conference. In doing so, the partners focused on a relatively young and energetic field of practice, known as Sport for Development (S4D) which uses sport and physical activity to promote wider development objectives, such as gender equity, peace and reconciliation, employability, crime reduction, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and many others.
The purpose of this Competence Framework is to provide the field of Sport for Development with clear and well-researched good practice benchmarks which will raise levels of competence and improve the work of S4D practitioners and therefore the lives of the communities and individuals with whom they work.
Occupational standards have existed in sport and many other sectors for nearly 40 years and are accepted by the EU as an important contributor to workforce development. This Competence Framework of Occupational Standards, together with the outputs of other strands of project research, also provided CHANGE with the basis for a Framework of Attributes, Skills and Knowledge (ASK) which education and training providers can use to devise initial training for new entrants to the field and help the continuing professional development of existing practitioners.
The principle is clear: if we know what good practice looks like for coordinators and activators, then we can analyse the attributes, skills and knowledge they need to achieve good practice. The ASK Framework is contained in a separate CHANGE publication – Training Handbook for sport for development in Europe.
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