Sport Business Lapland offers practical skills in sport business management to coaches, athletes, sport club leaders, and other actors in the field of sports.
In Finland most sport clubs are run on voluntary basis and therefore many active sport club actors are coaching athletes or leading their club without suitable education. Lapland University of Applied Sciences (UAS) together with Santasport Sport Academy decided to tackle this challenge by developing education programmes for sport club leaders, coaches and athletes.
The development of the study units started in with mapping of sport clubs’ needs with surveys, interviews and workshops. The courses consider sport business holistically and include units such as: Athlete as a Brand, Responsible Coaching, Current Issues in Business Management, Social Media as a Tool in Sports Marketing and Sales, Sport Taxation and Profitability & Leadership in Sport Management.
The education programme is being piloted with small study units. The first group of students started Lapland UAS in autumn 2020. The development of the studies began before the pandemic and although they already contained themes, such as digitalisation and financial management, which became even more relevant during covid, some parts of the studies were formulated to better respond to the challenges experienced during the pandemic.
The studies are designed in a way that one can take part in the studies while having a day job. As university level courses one can also include the studies as part of a degree.
Resources needed
The Sport Business Lapland education is developed in a project that has received 243 000€ from European Social Fund. The project is implemented together with Santasport Lapland Sport Academy, which is developing courses for vocational level and as short training.
Evidence of success
The studies have aroused a lot of interest and there have been more applicants than Lapland UAS has been able to take in. Students are coaches, athletes and sport club leaders from Lapland and other parts of Finland.
Feedback from students has been positive and they have been able to put the skills in practice in their work. One even established a business after completing the studies.
Difficulties encountered
There have been dropouts since some students were not prepared for the amount of work university level studies take. For some, lack of basic IT skills created a challenge, which forced Lapland UAS to include basic studying and IT skills to the selection criteria and to offer support services.
Potential for learning or transfer
The covid pandemic has underlined the need for skills for sport clubs to develop and reformulate their activities in an efficient way. Sport Business Lapland education sees business holistically and the studies are tailor made for sport actors. Good knowledge on sports isn’t enough, but one has to be aware of the management side as well. Skills are also an important factor in green and digital transition. If people don’t have the skills and capacity to acquire new methods, changes are much more difficult to achieve.
An important aspect in the studies offered by Lapland UAS has also been social and environmental responsibility, which are themes that are very relevant in today’s sports. Sport Business Lapland studies give students practical tools to how to act responsibly in coaching, management and events.
Tags: Business, Higher education, Sport, Sustainable management
