International Day of Education 2022

As it was detailed in UNESCO’s global Futures of Education report, transforming the future requires an urgent rebalancing or our relationships with each other, with nature as well as with technology that permeates our lives, bearing breakthrough opportunities while raising serious concerns for equity, inclusion and democratic participation.

This year’s International Day of Education will be a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realize everyone’s fundamental right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful futures. It will generate debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safeguard the planet and unlock the potential in every person to contribute to collective well-being and our shared home.

Some EFDN programmes that further the goal of education in different areas and for different age groups include:

EFDN STEM FOOTBALL & EDUCATION PROGRAMME

The EFDN STEM Football & Education Programme is a pan-European project selected for financial support from UEFA Foundation for Children aiming to promote STEM Education amongst European youth. STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – is the field that helps children learn how to program, make codes, and understand technological devices. Statistics tell us there are currently more than a million job vacancies in the STEM industry, while at the same time only 16% of college students graduate in STEM fields or subjects. Demand for STEM jobs increased three times between 2000 and 2010, and continues to grow, with many new fields and professions emerging each day. With the support of project partner Sphero and their supplemental resources, EFDN plans to deliver STEM Education programmes across Europe using the power of football to keep children engaged and committed to learning.

WELCOME THROUGH FOOTBALL

Welcome Through Football is an EFDN initiative. Current projects across Europe receive funding from the Eramus+ programme of the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children.

The Welcome Through Football 2021 project aims to assist in the integration and inclusion of recently arrived young refugees, asylum seekers and young people with a migrant background. EFDN and partners will develop and test a European methodology that uses football as a tool to reach refugees and migrants from different ages (7-25 years old) to get them physically and social active in European communities.

Moreover, the project assists football coaches and youth workers in the development and sharing of effective methods in reaching out to the marginalised target group, in preventing racism and intolerance.

STEP4YOUTH

The objective of STEP4youth is to design, test and evaluate a new sport-based intervention that introduces and improves employability, knowledge, skills and networks in order to foster the social inclusion of refugee and migrant youth (including unaccompanied minors and youth at highest risk) in Europe.

This new Programme will focus on soft skills valued by employers, such as commitment, motivation, teamwork, flexibility, leadership, time-management or creativity and problem-solving to name a few. Working and strengthening these skills will allow a group of 180 refugees and migrant youth from Spain, Greece and Italy to be better equipped when entering the labour market. Having a job is crucial for their independence and self-reliance and facilitates their social inclusion and integration in Europe. The programme, inspired by the best European practices linking sport and social inclusion, will be delivered by a pool of 90 educators and coaches trained in the new methodology. Furthermore, the project will connect refugees and migrants with a group of 15 companies through the so-called BRIDGE events, an ideal platform for employers to seek new talents duly trained by the Programmes’ methodology. Another key output of the project is the design of a systematization process to evaluate and asses the intervention, and extract from there conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations for the EU sporting community. Dissemination of project results is ensured through the wide international network of the project partners, and at least 20 new European organizations will be identified to share with them the STEP4youth values and seek their adhesion to the network.

The project is led by our member Barça Foundation, partnering with Organization Earth, Prospettiva Cooperative, the Danish Refugee Council and EFDN.

FOOTBALL WORKS

Football and the programme Football Works brings people and organisations together and has a social power that can inspire people to take positive steps in their own development. The football clubs can play an important role in this by offering social internships and work guidance programmes. It also offers vulnerable people a social safety net and makes them feel part of the society again. ‘Werk via Sport DJI’ and EFDN acknowledge that football can be very important for detainees to successfully return to society after their detention, thereby reducing nuisance, crime and insecurity.