Personal reflection: #Sport4SD Job Shadowing in Tokyo by Cedric Vermeiren
Cedric was one of the young participants, representing ENGSO Youth, that took part in our Erasmus+ Sport funded Sport for Sustainable Development project job shadowing activity in Tokyo, Japan.
Read about his experience.
"The Sport4SD project in Tokyo has been an absolute eye-opener."
My name is Cedric Vermeiren, I am a Belgian special education expert and care teacher working in a high school. Besides this I am one of the joint chairs of the European Hockey Federation Youth Leadership Panel where we strive to empower, inform, and inspire the youth of hockey.
The Sport4SD project in Tokyo has been an absolute eye-opener. Learning about sustainable development in correlation with mega sports events has thought me a lot. Thanks to different workshops, guest speakers such as Ms. Etsuko Yamada, and presentations from other participants, I have been able to open my mind and learn about different topics and different strategies on how to tackle sustainability.
After the training course, a smaller group of participants stayed for three more weeks to take part in the job shadowing program. This program allowed us to have a deeper look into the sustainability strategy of mega sports events with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games as a case study.
First, I would like to say what an amazing team we had. All partner organizations made an extremely hard effort on delivering a report at the end of the program. Working on the report has brought me many things.
It has brought me communicative skills, working on a report with a group and doing research on different topics of the Games required good communication. Not only communication but public speaking and leadership were skills I needed during these few weeks in Japan. Overall, I can say my soft skills and my knowledge of sustainable development were sharpened during my time in Japan.
I would like to thank ENGSO Youth for giving me the opportunity to take part in this wonderful project. Also, a big thank you to Kokushikan University for organizing field visits, powerful insights, and a warm welcome in Japan. I had an amazing time and I’m ready to spread my learning to others in Belgium and further now.