Sport4SD training course was a rewarding and valuable experience
Thomas was one of the young participants, representing ENGSO Youth, that took part in our Erasmus+ Sport funded training course in Tokyo, Japan.
Read about his experience.
"It is now up to us, the participants, to capitalize on the skills we have acquired and the network we have created during this event."
My name is Thomas, I’m 24, Parisian born and raised, and I’ve been working for a consulting agency in Paris for almost a year now.
I was lucky enough to be able to participate in my first ENGSO Youth gathering this year, at the Training Course held in Tokyo in partnership with Kokushikan University. I got selected two years ago during the covid outbreak, after having stumbled upon the call for applications published by ENGSO Youth. I first heard about ENGSO Youth and the Tokyo Training Course thanks to the president of the association (Awaree) with whom I’ve been involved for more than three years now.
How did I feel about this experience?
Where to start? It was much more than a rewarding and valuable experience on a professional level. This training course also brought me a very broad vision of the issues that institutions and actors of the sports world are facing today, regarding the notions of sport and sustainable development.
I think that one of the pillars of this training course was “the sharing”. Cultural “sharing” of course as we gathered more than thirty young leaders from all over the world, but also of good practices and experiences, which we were able to exchange during the different workshops and reflection times.
From a more personal point of view, I think that the training allowed me to access a set of skills and valuable feedbacks: via the training and conferences on SDGs, but also thanks to the various interventions and feedback from which we could benefit (e.g.: Ivana Pranjić, Luka Antonia Börger, Bence Garamvölgyi, Etsuko Yamada from the Japan Sports Council…).
The Sport4SD Training Course was a real opportunity for me to reconnect with a sector that is dear to me, both in terms of the values it conveys and the opportunities for change it represents. We have benefited from quality coaching in a stimulating multi-cultural environment.
It is now up to us, the participants, to capitalize on the skills we have acquired and the network we have created during this event. The SDGs are a powerful lever for development and we have all the weapons to implement them.
