The International Trade Centre (ITC), UEFA Foundation for Children and partners launched life-skills curriculum for young people in developing countries using football as coaching medium
A new curriculum using football to teach entrepreneurship and employability life-skills to young people in developing countries was launched by the International Trade Centre, the UEFA Foundation for Children, Kick4Life and Streetfootballworld on 12 August 2020.
The curriculum was unveiled at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on to mark International Youth Day by acting ITC Executive Director Dorothy Tembo and Urs Kluser, General-Secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children.
‘Football motivates and enthuses young people in a way that no other sport does,’ Ms. Tembo said. ‘The investments made by the football industry on the economic and social development of young people have great potential for collaboration and action in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This new publication adds to that effort.’
‘The UEFA Foundation for Children is pleased to be a partner in such a valuable, wide reaching project. Young people from a range of developing countries will undoubtedly benefit hugely from learning valuable life skills such as communication, decision making and teamwork all whilst enjoying playing the beautiful round ball game,’ Mr. Kluser said.
The curriculum was developed to support the Kick for Trade initiative, which fosters football-based life-skills to promote social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurship for young people. The initiative was jointly created by ITC’s Youth and Trade Programme and UEFA Foundation in May 2019.
After initial pilot activities in The Gambia and Guinea in 2019, the curriculum was shaped and developed to enable youth to build transferable skills like leadership and teamwork by playing football.
Life-skills that form part of the toolkit include problem-solving, creative thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy, assertiveness and composure, and resilience.
The program is supported by Pascal Feindoune (ex player from St Etienne ex international Guinean player).
The curriculum is designed to be delivered by trained life-skills coaches in inclusive environments and centres on 11 sessions each on youth employability and entrepreneurship. Only the basic minimum of equipment is required to deliver the sessions successfully, making the curriculum suitable for many contexts where many young people can benefit.
On-site pilot activities of the Kick for Trade initiative are currently on hold in The Gambia and Guinea due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the curriculum is set to be rolled out in countries that feature ITC youth-related projects with entrepreneurship and employability components once restrictions are lifted.
For more information, visit the official ITC media release here.
