H4DC Academy: Athlete suport service pilot program
The H4DC project started with the mission to design an innovative athlete support service which could bring together different actors that may complement their efforts in order to improve the dual career management of high-level sport talents. Sport talents, parents, coaches, clubs, school representatives, universities, and companies had been investigated in order to understand particular needs and visions to create a service model to put all these stakeholders in-line to work together around improving players development in each on the different ways: educative. sportive and vital.
During last 2017, these research and investigations, conducted by project's partner AUAS, lead to the definition of these first draft model that will be tested during the whole 2018 to mid-2019 on the three handball clubs participating at the project: BM.Granollers (Spain), FENIX Toulouse (France) and IK Sävehof (Sweden)
The "H4DC ACADEMY", which is the name that this pilot program stands for, had defined a several of new procedures, profiles, roles and activities that will be performed by already trained club staff members with the collaboration of new specialized professionals that will be integrated into the new resultant club structure. This incorporation of the key specific professionalized roles on the club' structure, it is done with the objective to meet and solve all kind of necessities and struggles that talents may face during school-competition time and provide them with useful information and knowledge about career choosing and future-planning. These key personalities areSports Psychologists, Tutors, Career Counselors and Study Coaches and Orientatorsalong with a specific managing position for coordinating the whole program.
IK Sävehof "H4DC Academy" Staff meeting
Another innovative approach to this pilot service is the designing and organization of several of seminars activities targeted to selected talents to test this program. As founded on the investigations, talents showed different needs and concerns depending on which personal moment they were at the moment and asked for different kind of proposals. So following this line, the "H4DC Academy" divides its structure into three separate programs with a few points of common, and seminars and activities are planned according to these needs and concerns. These three programs are called Bronze, Silver, and Gold:
- BRONZE PROGRAM (15 to 17 years old)
Young talents which are preparing for the fisrt and important transitions (educative and sportive) in their life and need guidance and orientation to face them. Activities will enforce personal identification and self-awareness.
- SILVER PROGRAM (18 to 23 years old)
Talents which are preparing for the transitions to professional sport while combinig with high-degree studies (university) and start to be inserted to the labour market.Activities on this programm are directed to work personal habilities and job seeking orientation.
- GOLD PROGRAM (+20 years old)
Professional talents that have to combine a elite high-performance sports with high-degree studies and/or work and starting to plan post-sport career. Activities for those talents will be more individualized, based on personal needs and situations.
BM.Granollers and FENIX Toulouse talents during "H4DC Academy" activities.
Once H4DC Academy will finish, with all three evaluations and other insights that may be founded, It will be written a draft Policy Recommendation Report, that will be transferable to any handball or another interested sport club in order to establish their own Dual Careers program in their institution, called "Transferability plan".