Helping Sportsmen prepare for Life beyond Sport

ROVERETO – At the conference “University Sport: Inspiring Innovation”, Thierry Zintz, Chairman of the European Observatory of Sport and Employment, spoke about the need to promote a dialogue between education, sport and employment, as well as the role of sports and activity as an important sector in society,

Zintz highlighted the essence of his work, “We help athletes to develop their dual career, their second career. There are some things already working but the scope and the goal is to give all European countries the right tools to develop such progress that we absolutely need.”

He addressed the issue of universities playing an active role in helping their students find employment, “For a long time universities considered it was not their job to give skills to their students that would make them fit for purpose on the work field. This is slowly changing nowadays because universities understand they have a responsibility towards society. The responsibility is to make sure that a maximum of young graduates get a job linked to their education.”

In addition, the Trentino Universiade, as do all Universiades, owes a great debt to volunteers. However, volunteering is not contained within sports competitions. Zintz drew attention to the fact that in Europe there are thought to be 35 million volunteers, which equates to about 7 percent of the population, and elaborated on this theme, “Being a volunteer at one time in your life is being part of a social and human relationship with other people. I have been involved in my National Olympic Committee for more than 20 years. I don’t do it for money, because I do not receive any. It was important for me to dedicate part of my time to these people for whom I have huge admiration. I am a volunteer in the world of sport. You have volunteers in more social activities, in cultural activities. This means that our society is functioning – if you have to pay for everything then it is finished.”

Toby Fisher, FISU Young Reporter