Significant growth in sport career options
It has been some time since the Cuban government made available scholarships for children from the Caribbean to study in Cuba. This has yielded much for which the region must be ever grateful.
Of course, in the beginning, parents, negatively impacted by the propaganda against Cuba, hesitated to have their children go to that country to study.
Times have been economically hard in Cuba and there were times when, having complained, some of the students were unfairly chided for being too petit-bourgeois, and too unwilling to understand the sacrifices that the Cuban government has been making to facilitate their education.
One of the areas of study on offer from the Cubans has been sport science. Some students have stayed with physical education and sport while others have turned to other sport careers, such as physiotherapy.
Over time, Vincentian students and their parents have been made aware that the ever-expanding field of sport allows for study options in an array of sub-disciplines and some of our students have already taken on the challenge.
There are still several career options that have not yet proven sufficiently attractive to our students, but which offer lucrative opportunities in sport. As yet, for example, we have no sport nutritionist, sports medicine or sport psychologists as specialists in St Vincent and the Grenadines, even though in other Caribbean countries, these fields have been readily subscribed.
Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has been seen as one of the major scourges of our time. However, it has also led to important changes in the way we live and function in society.
Across the world there has been a massive increase in individuals taking to exercise to become or stay healthy. Even here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the tarmac of what was once the ET Joshua airport in Arnos Vale, is consistently inundated with health enthusiasts, many of whom have been motivated by the health warnings attendant to the onset and impact of Covid-19.
The pandemic has led to greater attention being paid to the daily news if only to benefit from information on ways to boost one’s immune system to stave off any chance of being a victim of the dreaded virus.
One of the most important changes has been the use of the Internet for an incredible amount of education opportunities in the most varied of fields and at little or no cost to the consumer.
Vincentians interested in sport are being encouraged by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and other sporting organisations to make full use of the education opportunities that are now readily available and so increase their chances of engaging themselves in a wider variety of career options in the field.
Athletics et al
During the pandemic, the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Area Association of World Athletics, created two innovative programmes.
The first was the Pre Level #1 Coaches Education programme. This was designed for individuals with absolutely no coaching background but who have a desire to become a coach in athletics. It dealt with the fundamentals of coaching athletics, essentially enabling participants to get an understanding of what is involved in the sport and how one gradually begins the process of coaching.
More that 200 individuals from the English-Speaking and over 400 Spanish-speaking member federations across the NACAC Area signed up for the sessions that ran for two months. The outcome is that all of those who completed the programme could feel much more confident in determining whether or not they want to continue to become certified coaches in their respective countries.
The second innovative programme introduced by NACAC is the Apprentice programme for persons wanting to become technical officials in the sport. Here again, the idea was to systematically introduce interested persons in the fundamentals of being a technical official. Once the programme is successfully completed individuals could determine the extent to which they want to stay with the sport or move on to something else.
NACAC has recently met with UWI to discuss inclusion of the World Athletics Coaches and Technical Officials’ Certification Programmes in the new sports degree of the regional institution’s Faculty of Sports. Discussions are moving forward to the possible inclusion of the same options in the Associate Degree programmes of some of the region’s community colleges.
Several other regional and international sports bodies engaged in the creation of different programmes where, online, they sought to sustain the interest of all their stakeholders in the sport.
Gender Leadership
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been at the forefront of promoting gender leadership in sport. This is consistent with international trends where, the push for girls and women by institutions around the world neglected, in large measure the role of boys and men whom, it falsely assumed, could have taken care of themselves.
Around the world, girls and women have been outperforming boys and men in the classroom at all levels of the education system. Admittedly, this change has not always manifested itself, at least at present, to the ascension of girls and women into positions of leadership in institutions and countries around the world in sufficient numbers.
The IOC and several international sports federations have committed their member organisations to institute quotas on their respective executives guaranteeing increased numbers of women in leadership.
During the pandemic, many international, regional and national sports organisations have been convening webinars aimed at bridging whatever is left of the gender divide.
In the Caribbean, for example, the Women’s Commission of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) has been meeting regularly with representatives of NOCs and Commonwealth Games Associations of the region. The Commission has also been conducting webinars aimed at facilitating greater knowledge and enhanced leadership skills.
NACAC’s Gender Leadership Working Group, in tandem with World Athletics, has successfully trained several facilitators for future programmes. The Group has already convened a leadership training webinar lasting over a period of weeks, aimed at enhancing skill competencies.
Panam Sports has also been hosting webinars for women in sport and engaged outstanding athletes, coaches and administrators in making presentations.
Gender leadership courses are already on the curriculum of university programmes in several countries around the world.
Sport Sciences, etc.
FIFA has a very strong post-graduate Diploma in Sports Management. The international football governing body has also collaborated with the University of the West Indies (UWI).
The programmes is being delivered at the UWI Campus in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. It is undertaken in collaboration with the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) and under the auspices FIFA.
The aforementioned is a one-year blended/online learning programme (90% online and 10% face-to-face) delivered over three semesters and begins in September 2021.
The IOC also encourages the pursuit of Olympic Studies, a growing field of academic interest.
CANOC is in discussions with UWI for a broader region-wide programme that focuses on training, research and development. Given the dearth of research in sport and physical activity in the Caribbean, even in the face of outstanding performances at the international level, the interest in facilitating this aspect of educational development in the region assumes paramount importance.
In today’s world, science impacts every aspect of life.
Sport is therefore always gravitating towards science in all aspects. This is the reason that we are constantly witnessing the changes in performances by our athletes in the different disciplines.
Here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, if we fail to modernise enough to allow for the investment in the science of sport we will be left further behind than we already are.
Informed choices
Sport is not frivolity. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
Importantly, the world of sport is constantly developing and in many instances, being revolutionised.
New sporting disciplines are always emerging, and older ones are being modified. Cultural differences are evident in many of the changes taking place in sport. The Internet makes every new thing readily available by way of knowledge transfer.
Every new sporting discipline is intended to be attractive to new, younger audiences.
It is not possible for our students to sit idly by and expect the rapidly changing landscape to wait on their inputs. They have to be aggressive in their pursuit of excellence and innovation.
Many individuals do not yet see coaching as a profession. The same can be said of officiating.
Our sports enthusiasts look at their sports programmes on television of online and fail to grasp the increasingly professional status of coaches and officials.
Whether it is being an umpire in cricket or tennis, a referee of assistant referee in football to a judge in gymnastics of synchronised swimming, all of these areas in sport are moving in the direction of sport itself – professional status and career pathways.
As with all careers, proficiency leads to higher earning capacity and hence more frequent appointments at the highest level of each sport.
It is therefore important that at the very beginning of one’s formal education process, our children are exposed to the full gamut of career options.
Children must be informed of the career options in sport as they are in respect of every other discipline that individuals use to determine their careers in life.
Vincentian children are as capable as children anywhere else in the world and can therefore develop into outstanding sport scientists, positively impacting and enhancing the performances of those among us who choose sport a their career options.
It is all within us!
