Micro Learning Entrepreneurship for Athletes - MLEA
The project Micro Learning Entrepreneurship for Athletes (MLEA) addresses the Collaborative partnership priority “Promote education in and through sport with special focus on skills development, as well support the implementation of the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes”.
Project partners will look to address a glaring gap in entrepreneurial education for athletes (in partners’ countries and EU level in general) that is adequate for athletes dealing with contemporary issues such as balancing sports and education/employment career.
The project’s main objective is to promote education in and through sports, as well as to assist in the implementation of the EU Guidelines on Athlete Dual Careers through the development of a tailor-made, modular curriculum on entrepreneurship for athletes. To assist athletes to make the most of their time and achieve their educational goals, educational materials will use the micro-learning technique. MLEA will use gamification aspects to boost athlete engagement and will enable on-demand online microlearning by providing bite-sized, short learning units with the essential quantity of information to assist athletes in achieving their goals. This project is critical for all professional athletes since it focuses on the development of dual careers and time management.
The initiative was formally launched on February 10th, 2021, by project partners via online meetings.
On September 27th and 28th 2021, MLEA consortium partners convened in Zagreb, Croatia, for a live conference to define the survey that would be used to finalise the entrepreneurship courses aimed specifically at talented and elite athletes. The following stages were also determined: completing the survey collecting and generating a research report as a foundational component of curriculum development.
Throughout 2022, partners have met several times and held the transnational partners meeting, updating the progress, the working activities, and the developing steps of the project itself.
On December 16th, the National Olympic Committees and the EUSA Institute presented the MLEA project to members, representatives, athletes, and guests in Ljubljana, Slovenia. During this General Assembly, MLEA provided a modular entrepreneurial education that includes gamification features and a micro-learning approach. The online entrepreneurship learning course is delivered in bite-sized portions and provides an overview of the business sector. Practical examples from sports and sports-related business concepts are used to demonstrate the notion.
OKS delegates, athletes, and visitors have been asked to participate in the online course when it becomes accessible, as well as to attend the final conference in Zagreb in March 2023.
After two years of consecutive hard work on the analysis of athletes' behavior in the context of developing entrepreneurial spirit, knowledge, and competencies as well as creating an online tool for promoting it, the final conference and partners meeting of the Micro-Learning Entrepreneurship for Athletes (MLEA) project took place on 13-14th of March at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, to mark the conclusion of the project.
The conference was consisted of various presentations about the project, the gamified learning platform and the importance of a dual career in the academic and sports world. Part of the final conference were also two panels, the All-Star and the Young Hopeful panels. The discussion of the panels were mostly opinions on the future steps for making dual career opportunities even more visible, best practice examples from the academic part of the guests, and how different sports models support dual career opportunities for athletes after their career ends.
With the ending of the project and the final MLEA conference, the primary focus of the project itself to promote education through sports and to support the implementation of the EU Guidelines on Dual Career of Athletes was completed, having the tailor-made modular curriculum on entrepreneurship for athletes and former athletes, as a proof of the successful realization of the project goals and outputs.
The MLEA Project ended on the 31st of March and the project was coordinated by the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (CRO), with project partners including the Croatian Olympic Committee (CRO), Stiftelsen Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research (SWE), WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management (GER), Olympic Committee of Bosnia (BIH), Olympic Committee of Serbia (SRB), Olympic Committee of Slovenia (SLO) and the EUSA Institute (SLO).
The two-year project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
For more information of the MLEA project, please see https://www.mlea.eu/