Utilising EU Co-operation to upskill apprentices
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Grimsby Town Football in the Community Sports and Education Trust (GTSET) was originally formed in 1986 and is managed by Graham Rodger, former Mariners Manager and player. Their Football in the Community scheme delivers a wide range of sessions, courses and programmes, all designed to involve the community as a whole to the culture of the game. The programme is constantly moving forward to become a well-established, progressive and self supporting scheme that reaches out to all areas of the communities within the North East Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire area. GTSET continually aims to expand and improve its full range of services to all areas of society and as a result improves inclusion for all young people within the area to be involved in physical activity through its scheme. An extension of Grimsby Town Futsal Scholarship programme was GTSETs participation in the Erasmus+ programme in 2016 when they secured funding for 27 learners and 5 accompanying staff to undertake a 14 day educational mobility programme in Spain from 28 March to 10 April 2016.
GTSET partnered with Oliva Nova Football Centre in Valencia on the programme. Futsal is played widely in Spain and the Spanish league teams have competed in Europe under UEFA, most notably in the UEFA Futsal Cup with great success, being the national league holding more continental titles, than any other nation. Oliva Nova's state of the art facilities and knowledge of hosting Erasmus+ groups provided the maximum benefit in terms of exposure to European expertise across all corners of futsal and football, namely technical; tactical; coaching; psychological teaching methods of the highest European standards. This exposure resulted in significant knowledge transfer of both playing skills and methodologies, together with best practice philosophies which will be retained and reproduced by GTSET to the benefit of future players and programmes.
The Erasmus+ programme was targeted at benefiting participants who are disadvantaged in the labour market, all the participants come from socially deprived areas, have not completed full education, and therefore are at a disadvantage than those who have completed their academic education. It was anticipated that each participant would benefit from improved employment prospects, enhanced career progression and greater job security following the mobility. GTSET will track participants' employment history for a period of three years in order to establish key data and trends and identify whether there is a direct correlation between a successful European mobility experience and improved employment prospects.
Participants were asked to self assess their contribution to the project and their responses were cross referenced to the findings of the accompanying staff who were tasked with evaluating the players performance against the work plan and the learning objectives, and investigating fully any discrepancies arising.
GTSET disseminate the mobility objectives and the outcomes widely, across various channels which ensured maximum exposure for the club and for Erasmus+. GTSET have a close working relationship with Grimsby Town Football club whose website has 10,000 members and with our local press the Telegraph who featured the programme widely. This was a fantastic opportunity for learners, many of whom had never travelled abroad, or been away from family and friends for such a long period of time. An important part of their work plan was to undertake language lessons and cultural excursions to broaden their horizons which they all embraced.
This was GTSETs first experience of undertaking an Erasmus+ mobility and we are keen to replicate it in the future. One of the most notable outcomes from the programme is that one participant is on trial at a League One Club and is expected to pursue a professional career in football and will be the first Futsal scholar from GTSET to do so. Previously footballers transition to playing futsal but it is very rare that futsal players make it into professional football in the UK, that is common practice throughout the rest of Europe and which this mobility reinforced.
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