The 3rd full partner meeting of the ONSIDE project partners took place in Lausanne Switzerland on 15th/16th November 2018 at the headquarters of European Athletics. The main focus of day 1 of the meeting was to consider the results of the research phases of the project. Adequate workforce research is the foundation of a successful skills development project and the partners reviewed the results from the four phases of research which had been carried out since the last meeting.
Telephone interviews with nine leading European federations generated useful data and increased the network of federations committed to the ONSIDE project. The group were most looking forward to learning the results of the national sport federation online survey – as all had made significant efforts to promote the survey in their networks.
247 respondents provided responses across 50 sports. The partner countries (France UK Bulgaria Romania Malta and the Netherlands) were very well represented. Results were analysed and discussed under key workforce development themes including recruitment retention skills education and current challenges. At the close of Day 1 delegates took a guided tour of the Olympic museum which was arranged by European Athletics and enjoyed immensely by all.
Day two saw delegates debating levels and models of sport officials led by Jan Vlasblom of NOC*NSF and agreeing a structure for the Occupational Descriptor to be produced in the project. Finally an interactive session produced an overall working definition of sport officiating which is the starting point in the production of competency standards.
The partners now look forward to the next meeting in Bucharest Romania in March 2019 where they will finalise the first set of outputs.
Ben Gittus EOSE Director of Standards said “the partners are working together very well as a team to tackle this challenging skills development project the research phase considered at the meeting has laid a solid foundation as we move in to year 2 of the project”.
Julia Lee Director at Sports Officials UK said “The two days have been really illuminating and it has highlighted the passion for sports officiating. 247 people completed the survey which in the time scale is really positive. The input from the partners and information gathered will be really useful to progress to the next stages of the project”.
The ONSIDE project is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Collaborative Partnerships in Sport programme.
Full list of project partners: European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE) Sports Officials UK (SOUK) Association Française du Corps Arbitral Multisports (AFCAM) European Handball Federation (EHF) European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) European Athletics SportMalta Dutch Olympic Committee * Dutch Sports Federation (NOC*NSF) Romanian Football Federation (FRF) British Wheelchair Basketball National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski”
