FIND ME: UNIVERSITY DUAL CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

In the last years, the interest in dual career topics increased enormously in the European Union (EU), leading to several initiatives in different countries aimed to develop dual career programs. According to European Union (EU)’s lexicon, the term dual career describes “an athlete that combine, without unreasonable personal effort, their sporting career with education and/or work in a flexible way through high-quality training in order to protect their moral, health, educational and professional interests without compromising either objective, with a particular focus on the continued formal education of young athletes (European Commission, 2012)”. Thus, dual career programs aim to allow student-athletes (SAs) to combine education and high-performance sport. A dual career program is needed since both activities are time and energy demanding and often require travelling or living abroad for long periods. Without support, athletes may find themselves in the situation of having to choose between study and sport, thus compromising his right to an education. To date, each country in the EU is addressing the issue with their own methods. The primary aim of the FIND ME project is to structure an evidence-based European platform specifically tailored for dual career at university level, in line with the recommendations of the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (European Commission, 2012). The partners of the FIND ME consortium will bring together a solid experience in dual career networks at national, European, and International networks, the involvement in the European Minimum Study on the minimum quality requirements for dual career services and in the Research for cult committee qualifications/dual careers in sports, the participation in the More Then Gold guidelines as well as in several European dual career projects, and the Italian dual career university platform.