SKILLS4CHANGE Project
Enhancing the skills of the Sport for Development workforce to promote positive values through innovative e-learning
The SKILLS4CHANGE project has been funded under the Erasmus+ Sport Programme of the European Union (Call 2025) and has a duration of 2 years, January 2026 – December 2027.
Background
Sport has the enormous power to engage people, especially those who face disadvantage, discrimination and social exclusion, and sport can give them opportunities for positive change in their lives.
This is the main aim of Sport for Development. This emerging sector uses the attraction of sport to promote areas such as public health, social justice, solidarity, personal and social development, and a wealth of other positive values and outcomes for individuals and communities which few other activities can reach.
But Sport for Development is relatively new, and professional development for its workforce is limited. There are few formal education pathways, and they can be inflexible and expensive. Traditional training courses in sport management and coaching are useful, but they are not enough. Sport for Development coordinators, for example, need skills such as community mapping, engagement and partnership working. Activators – the face-to-face workers – need the competence to adapt activities to individual and community needs and the ability to facilitate learning in areas such as life skills, literacy, gender equity, employability, conflict resolution, anti-racism and many others.
All of this shows that the Sport for Development workforce – and others in the sport movement who want to enter this field – need access to cost-effective, flexible and, above all, relevant training.
Aim
Building on EOSE’s earlier CHANGE project, the overarching aim of SKILLS4CHANGE is to provide innovative, easily accessible and needs driven learning pathways to support the continuing professional development of Sport for Development practitioners and other managers and coaches in the sport sector who wish to develop sport for development capabilities, thereby improving their impact on the groups and individuals they work with.
This will be done through intensive and thorough research, analysis and consultation on the key development needs of these staff and the high priority areas of practice, the design and testing of digital training solutions with current and aspiring practitioners and a sustainability action plan which will ensure the products are fully embedded into the European and global Sport for Development community.
The overall benefits / impacts of SKILLS4CHANGE will be:
Creating an innovative forum
for the sharing of knowledge, creative ideas and good practices in Sport for Development training. The partners will gain valuable experience in designing and implementing innovative digital e-learning and will be able to mainstream the outputs into their own staff training programmes and those of their partners.
Training 80 current and potential Sport
for Development practitioners who will gain new, relevant knowledge and skills in the core principles of sport for development and high priority topical areas of practice.
Raised capacity of Sport for Development organisations, federations and clubs
as well as better understanding of Sport for Development in the wider sport movement through effective dissemination and promotion of the products and their access through a digital platform, resulting in enhanced outcomes for the communities.
Expected Deliverables
Deliverable 1
A training needs analysis report on the key training priorities for Sport for Development practitioners
The project will carry out thorough desk research and literature review covering the key training needs and priority areas of practice for Sport for Development in Europe and globally. This will be supplemented by a major online multilingual training needs analysis survey targeting organisations in Sport for Development and the wider sport movement, the results of which will be validated by European and national focus group consultations.
Deliverable 2
10 innovative and interactive e-learning modules based on identified training priorities for Sport for Development practitioners in English and two other European languages
This will be achieved through selecting and defining module topics from the training needs analysis, developing module content with Sport for Development subject matter experts, converting learning content into stimulating, interactive digital formats and piloting and refining these with a target group of 80 practitioners. The finalised e-learning modules will be freely available in English and two other European languages on a Learning Management System (LMS) platform.
Deliverable 3
An online digital competency-based self-reflection tool for Sport for Development practitioners available in English and two other European languages
SKILLS4CHANGE will create an online questionnaire and report for current and aspiring Sport for Development practitioners which will help them identify their individual professional development needs and signpost them to the appropriate e-learning modules and other recommended learning pathways. The self-reflection tool will be carefully tested and refined with the 80 practitioners engaged in the project, and the final version will be uploaded to the LMS platform.
Deliverable 4
A global online conference on education and employment in Sport for Development
To reach and impact the maximum number of stakeholders in Europe and globally, the conference will be organised online as a webinar which will target a minimum of 100 participants from Europe and globally.
Deliverable 5
A strategic sustainability action plan towards achieving a competent workforce in Sport for Development
To be fully effective SKILLS4CHANGE will develop a plan with recommendations and priority actions to ensure that there are structures and activities in place to continue to promote and embed the outputs in the Sport for Development movement and the broader sport sector for a five-year period after the project closes. The plan will also explore the potential for the e-learning modules to be formally recognised within the sport sector and existing qualification frameworks.
Partnership
The official applicant and coordinator of the project is SportMalta, who will be supported with the coordination and management of the project by EOSE.
SKILLS4CHANGE gathers stakeholders from:
A government sports council with strategic responsibilities for sport and physical activity
A well-established global platform for Sport for Development with valuable experience in e-learning
A university which researches Sport for Development and delivers relevant education programmes
A major international sport federation with a long track record of using its sport to promote wider personal and social outcomes
Four very experienced Sport for Development organisations with expertise in training design and delivery
SKILLS4CHANGE Library
Leaflet
View or download PDF
E-learning modules for sport for development
Coming Soon
Self-refletion tool for sport for development
Coming Soon
Strategic sustainability action plan
Coming Soon
Latest News
Coming Soon
Contact
Need to know more about the SKILLS4CHANGE project?
Willing to take part in the dissemination and consultation process?
Interested in working with the project partners or share ideas/suggestions/good practice?
Get in touch, we will get back to you as soon as possible.
