The Expert Group Skills and Human Resources Development in Sport (XG HR) was set up on invitation of the European Commission under the Third EU Work Plan for Sport (2017-2020). The Expert Group held its first meeting in the City of Bath, United Kingdom form February 20 to 22, 2018. University of Bath together with The Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) hosted the Meeting.

The goal of Expert group is to provide advice and expertise to the Commission in relation to the preparation of policy initiatives and the implementation of the Third EU Work Plan for Sport. The group will meet at least twice per year. The members of the group are nominated by each Member State and the Commission may invite observers and speakers for each meeting on an ad-hoc basis. European University Sports Association (EUSA) was granted the status of observer and was represented by Ms Sara Rozman, Education and Development Manager.



The main focus of the Expert Group will be on skills and human resources development in sport in a broad context and specifically topic of education of coaches, development of skills through sport, qualifications in sport and dual careers of athletes will be discussed.

The meeting consisted of five sessions. In the first session, after the general introduction and information from the Commission on recent policy developments in the area of sport, Guy Taylor, TASS National Director, presented the outcomes of the former Expert Group on Human Resources and Development in Sport. The five documents prepared by this group over the period of 2014-2017 were presented.



The second session focused on education of coaches. Ms Kairis Ulp, former Chair of the Council Working Party on Sport (Estonian Presidency) presented achievements of the EE PRES with a focus on the Council Conclusions on the role of coaches in society (adopted in November 2017). Mr Sergio Lara-Bercial, from European Coaching Council described the current education of coaches system in Europe. After both presentation there was a discussion regarding coach education systems in each country.

The third session was dedicated to dual careers in the UK. The first part of the session consisted of a visit of the facilities of the University of Bath relating to dual careers of athletes as well as a presentation of the Dual Careers programmes in the UK (example of the University of Bath and the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, TASS).



The second day started with a session devoted to skills and qualifications in sport. Two sets of projects were presented to inform the group about EU developments in this area. Mr Cliff Collins for EuropeActive presented BLUEPRINT and SIQAF projects. The SIQAF project is supported by DG Employment in the context of the priority axis called: Relevance of Sector and International Qualifications and Frameworks to the EQF. The second project - BLUEPRINT is an Erasmus+ funded collaborative partnership in the area of European standards development of coaches and instructors in the leisure sector.

Presentation of the Sector Skills Alliance and ONSIDE projects was delivered by Mr Stephen Studd and Mr Simone Digennaro, from European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE). The aim of the first project is to deliver the first Europe-wide Employment and Skills map for the whole sport and physical activity sector. The second project ONSIDE aims to explore the generic competences, skills and knowledge of sport officials and is supported by Erasmus+ programme.



The objective of the last session was to inform members of the Expert group about recent developments in the area of Key competences and discuss possible role of sport and physical activity in this context. After the introduction, Mr Zoltan Boronyai from the Hungarian School Sports Federation focused on the SHAPE Project (Shaping the principles of physical education), the goal of which is to compare regulatory documents and systems of school physical education in various Member States.

The next meeting of the Expert group is foreseen in the beginning of July.