Be a Winner In elite Sport and Employment before and after athletic Retirement

B-WISER was a 2-year project that kicked off in January 2017. The aim of B-WISER was “to provide EU Member States with empirical data, conceptualisations, tools and evidence-based practices relevant to, and enabling them to create the optimal environment to enhance elite and former elite athletes’ employability and employment during three specific career stages: (1) when they are active in elite sport (D-phase), (2) when they have retired from elite sport and prepare for a first-time employment (R-phase), and (3) when they are employed in their post-athletic career (P-phase)”. B-WISER addressed this aim by identifying: (a) the practices, roles, challenges, cooperation and effectiveness measures related to ‘elite sport and employment’ of 169 surveyed stakeholders (i.e. representative bodies of athletes, employers, sporting bodies, educational bodies, career support providers), (b) the barriers faced and competencies required by 954 surveyed active and former elite athletes across the DRP stages, and (c) the perceptions of 65 employers on the value of hiring athletes expressed during five focus groups and six face-to-face interviews. Based on the empirical data collected, B-WISER developed the following products:(1) written materials (e.g., meeting and conference presentations, scientific publications in preparation) on: (a) the current state of 'elite sport and employment' support services for active and former elite athletes in Europe, (b) the competencies active and retired athletes require to optimize their employability, and (c) the reasons why employers (do not) hire athletes and ways to maximize athletes’ added value;(2) research- and expert-based online instruments in the 8 languages of the consortium (English, Dutch, French, German, Swedish, Slovenian, Spanish, Catalan) for (a) ‘elite sport and employment’ stakeholders, enabling the assessment of their practices, roles, challenges and effectiveness measures related to ‘elite sport and employment’, and (b) athletes in the DRP stages, enabling the assessment of their barriers faced and competencies required to optimize their employability;(3) a conceptual competency framework that structures athletes’ competencies required to optimize their employability (4) a Toolbox for Career Practitioners with ten evidence-based tools that aim to increase athletes’ awareness about their competencies and enhance the matching with employers;(5) workshops organised across the 6 countries of the consortium under the name “From Elite Sport to the Job Market: Discover you own competencies”, where 31 active and retired elite athletes tested the evidence-based tools;(6) a dedicated international conference on ‘Optimizing athletes’ employability’, where 109 participants with various backgrounds (sport, education, employment, policy) were informed about the outcomes of B-WISER, tested the evidence-based tools in 4 parallel workshops, and were actively involved in two panel discussions with ‘elite sport and employment’ experts;(7) the online environment www.dualcareertools.com, which hosts 3 self-assessment tools that aim to help active/former elite athletes and dual career support providers to evaluate their competencies.Products 1-7, together with the formation of a solid consortium of 50 dual career experts from 3 different sectors (education, sport, employment), can all be considered innovative aspects. These innovative outcomes bring direct added value to DC research, practice and policy by providing (a) new knowledge on athletes’ vocational development, (b) new tools that can directly be used to assess and (further) develop the competencies of ‘elite sport and employment’ services and athletes in different career stages, and (c) a new network of ‘elite sport and employment’ experts.More information on the project is available at www.bwiser.eu