Training Sports Students as Mentors to Improve the Educational Attainment of Boys and Young Men Erasmus Project

Project Title

Training Sports Students as Mentors to Improve the Educational Attainment of Boys and Young Men

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Health and wellbeing; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Context and background of the SSaMs project:

The Europe 2020 strategy sets out a target of “reducing the share of early leavers of education and training to less than 10 % by 2020” (EU, 2010). The rate of early school leaving (ESL) is consistently higher amongst boys than girls in all EU member states [except Bulgaria & Rumania (EC, 2017)]; males are more likely to leave education with at most lower secondary education, yet on educational support to prevent ESL there are “a shortage of initiatives specifically targeted at boys” (EU, 2010).

The theoretical basis of SSaMs was provided by use of strengths-based Positive Youth Development as a known model of mentoring work. Mentoring is a well-established, non-formal method of improving academic attainment. On addressing youth unemployment, EC recommendations include enhancing support for non-formal education workers including mentor roles (EC, 2014); strengths-based mentoring is also used in sport to develop key athletic strengths.

Our rationale for sport as a mentoring vehicle is that sports personnel are already working with young males on health improvement and social concerns in schools and non-formal education settings. There is also evidence of sports coaches working with boys as mentors in a small number of schools (Eaude, T. 2008; Gulati & King, 2009; Beattie et al, 2014). However, whilst sports personnel are well placed to work with young males, personnel lack knowledge and skills required to work effectively in supportive education, health, and social contexts (Parnell et al, 2013).

Aim and objective:

SSaMs aim is to assist in reducing male ESL. Our objective was to develop a Higher Education Institute (HEI) course to enhance the knowledge and skills of undergraduate sports students to enable them to provide mentoring support in future vocational settings for young males who are underachieving at school and so motivate them to stay at school and improve their educational attainment/outcomes. The course also instructs students on support for young men’s mental and emotional health as an issue affecting educational performance.

Main activities:

SSaMs development comprised intellectual outputs to produce the resource:

Intellectual Output 1: SSaMs learning materials
Intellectual Output 2: SSaMs train the trainer materials
(The original application included an Intellectual Output 3 – Project and Pilot Evaluation Report, but this was removed by the UK National Agency at the assessment stage.)

These outputs enabled:
1. Identification of the context of male ESL in each partner state for a needs analysis to inform SSaMs materials development;
2. Liaison with partner HEIs/NGO to develop and pilot SSaMs learning materials;
3. Liaison with partner HEIs/NGO to develop SSaMs train the trainer materials;
4. Production of a project and pilot evaluation report to inform HEIs and stakeholders;
5. Dissemination and exploitation activities that promote SSaMs.

Number and profile of participants:

The SSaMs project consisted of six partners from northern (UK, Republic of Ireland), central (Czech Republic), and southern (Greece, Italy, Spain) Europe. These include five Higher Education Institutions and a non-government organisation (Italy) working with young people.

Results and impact:

Short-term:
(i) available online for anyone to use;
(ii) easy to use and accessible to wide audience; and
(iii) can be used to support the delivery of SSaMs either as a stand-alone training programme or as a unit of training integrated into a suitable module within Higher Education.

Long-term:
(i) Improved staff knowledge, skills, and materials applicable to teaching about male gender-sensitive work
(ii) Transnational knowledge exchange of research and practical work to reduce male ESL
(iii) Students will have enhanced quality of knowledge and skills for working with young males – leading to:
(iv) The existing education workforce will be enhanced by mentors possessing knowledge and skills to motivate young men to remain at school
(v) Students will enhance their employment prospects
(vi) HEIs will have new or strengthened ties with education and other stakeholders
(vii) HEI support for male mentoring and networking
(viii) HEIs will have a new, marketable course complementary to existing sports science work
(ix) Stakeholders can employ staff trained to address male-gender concerns
(x) Contributes to the knowledge-base for practitioners, academics, and policy makers on practical work with males
(xi) Contributes towards the Europe 2020 strategy target of “reducing the share of early leavers of education and training to less than 10% by 2020” (EU, 2010).

The project was successfully completed to time, with all partners participating. There were no issues that could not be addressed and resolved by the SSaMs partnership during the project’s development.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 171123,9 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS
• INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CARLOW
• UNIVERZITA PALACKEHO V OLOMOUCI
• UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA
• CESIE