Better sport through inclusion: barriers to employment young people face in sport

The BeST Inclusion project, coordinated by the European Association of Sport Employers (EASE) and partnered by ENGSO Youth, is a project aiming to achieve a more inclusive and diverse workforce within the sport sector, around 3 main axes: gender, age and disability. The project intends to strengthen the employability by supporting sport employers and giving them all the keys to hire these different categories of workers without fear.

Best Inclusion Project

As part of the project’s activities, three European online roundtables were organised in 2022, focusing on three specific topics: disability, age, and gender.

 

ENGSO Youth was responsible for the organisation of the second roundtable, which revolved around the topic of “age diversity” and discussed the barriers that young people face when it comes to employment within the European sport sector. The roundtable was held on 8 November 2022 and welcomed 14 experts from various subfields of sport and European countries (France, Leetonia, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Malta, UK, Netherlands). 

 

After the presentation of key figures by the University of Cassino southern Lazio, the participants discuss the following issues:

  • Age discrimination and bias in the labour market: what is the solution in the sport sector?
  • Do we need specific strategies in Europe to enhance work attractiveness to all sport employees no matter their age?
  • Is the EU promoting an age-inclusive workforce?
Best Inclusion Roundtable

The roundtable highlighted that young people deserve a place within the European sport sector and should receive more recognition within the governance of the sports institutions. In sport, youth are actively involved as volunteers, therefore it is crucial that sport volunteering acts as a welcoming and rewarding “career building” platform. 

 

Full report can be found here 

 

The first roundtable focused on the inclusion of people with a disability and was organised by the Finnish Paralympic Committee on 27 October 2022. The third and last roundtable, organised by the Alice Millat Association, addressed the gender equality issues and included ENGSO Secretary General Sara Massini as speaker. 

 

You can read reports from all three roundtables here.

 

Those exchanges and discussions will contribute to the studies which will be developed by the academic partners of the project in 2023. All project’s activities will eventually support the production of recommendations to achieve a more inclusive workforce on a national and European level through social dialogue and in line with the economic reality of the sport sector.

 

More about the project

Ey Best Inclusion

Share with your friends