SportMalta, proud partners of EOSE latest Project – ONSIDE PROJECT

On the 26th and 27th of July 2018 a committed group of experts from the area of sport officiating came together for the 2nd full partner meeting of the ONSIDE project. The meeting was held in the inspirational surroundings of the Papendal Sport Training Centre in the Netherlands. Funded through the Erasmus+ Sport programme of the European Union, the ONSIDE project will, for
the first time, explore the generic skills (meaning non sport specific skills) and competences of sport officials and develop new education courses relevant across all nations and sports in Europe. Following a successful kick-off meeting in Vienna in April 2018, the partnership continued with the overall work programme which involves the implementation of an innovative 7 Step approach to workforce and skills development in sport officiating.

Research of the sector is vital to underpin any skills development and training initiative and this was the first step considered by the partners. The next six months will see an intense period of both desk research in to all relevant aspects of sport officiating, and the launch of an online survey for national sport federations to gather views on skills issues and tendencies for the first time at the European level. The next step of developing Occupational Descriptors for sport officiating was also introduced with the partners working in groups to list various sport official positions across sports and classify them based on tasks and responsibilities. A first draft of an overall framework for sport officials was proposed which will be further developed and tested.
Patrick Vajda, representing AFCAM, took the opportunity to present the emerging International Sport Officials Federation to the group.

After the meeting, Ben Gittus, EOSE Director of Standards said “EOSE is delighted with the commitment, expertise and professionalism of the partnership, the close cooperation between partners will help to achieve quality results throughout the project” Janie Frampton, CEO of Sports Officials UK said: “the partners have quickly formed a fantastic team and it is a pleasure to work together on this project, it is great to see the project taking shape”. Jean Gracia, representing European Athletics also commended the cooperation between the partners at the meeting and is sure the project will result in a good outcome for the whole sport sector.

The meeting was excellently hosted by the NOC*NSF from the Netherlands. The next meeting will be
hosted by European Athletics in Lausanne, Switzerland, in November 2018.

FULL LIST OF 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, and National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski”.