Sport experts kickstarting a review of five sport education courses toward micro-qualifications were reminded of the rich legacy of the Oceania Sport Education Programme (OSEP) in the Pacific Islands.
OSEP is the flagship programme of the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) and already recognised as a one-of-a-kind community-based sport education programme in the Olympic Movement for potential duplication in marginal settings, and the challenge for sport experts is to maintain this legacy whilst progressing to micro-qualifications which increase graduate employability in the Pacific Islands.
ONOC said, “The establishment of OSEP as the first regional sports education programme offered a cost-effective solution to build the capacity of Pacific based coaches, administrators and trainers utilising a regional approach of collaboration.”
“ONOC is entrusting you with the responsibility that this legacy continues to recognise past alumni and licensed facilitators, and is able to blend this rich heritage of alumni and their huge work in the region…which courses will be repackaged and shared with higher learning institutions so that inclusion, diversity and recognition of prior learning are still able to be championed among those for whom sport – and sport education – is a lifelong passion.
“Today, your collective work is taking this rich legacy and ensuring that OSEP can do better and serve the needs of the Pacific Islands sporting sector in a more targeted fashion, and with due recognition to its trainers and current and future candidates.”
The micro-qualifications exercise is being conducted through a partnership between ONOC and the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP), specifically the expertise of Rajendra Prasad, in consultation with representatives of the sporting sector in Industry Advisory Committee (IAC).
ONOC acknowledged the work of the IAC in the areas of Sport Management, Technical Coaching, and Strength and Conditioning in the previous year, which produced a series of three drafts for review.
ONOC raised several challenges and said, “What is critical is to position and determine the offerings these micro-qualifications will address.”
“What will our comparative edges be? Our relevance? What will be our point of difference with other providers, and how unique will our offering be, and would this perhaps be unique to Oceania?”
ONOC further raised, “Will training providers be convinced that the uptake of these micro-qualifications will be a viable endeavour for them?”
“And finally, will our end-users, our clients, will our offering be attractive to sport administrators, technical coaches, and strength and conditioning experts?”
ONOC added that OSEP and sport education in general contribute directly to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strategic roadmap, and the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 through contributions to sport organisation management, good governance, athlete development, entourage development toward Games, and through strengthening of national sporting sectors that contribute directly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ONOC said sport contributed to the SDGs through the areas of education, health and wellbeing, gender equality, decent work, economic growth, and climate action.
The Micro-Qualifications Review Meeting has delegates from only Fiji and Australia present, due to the travel restrictions resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but its outcomes will be shared with sport experts throughout the region for their comment and input.
ONOC extended gratitude to all sport education experts who are lending their expertise on a voluntary basis and acknowledged the hard work of its Education Commission, which is led by James Tobin of the Federated States of Micronesia.
The ONOC Education Commission members attending include Makarita Lenoa, who is also the President of the Fiji Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC), and Regan Kama of Oceania Athletics and the Organisation of Sports Federations of Oceania (OSFO).
Article adapted from ONOC website.