The United Nations defines capacity building as “the process by which people, organisations and society systematically stimulate and develop their capability over time to achieve social and economic goals, including through the improvement of knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions – within a wider social and cultural enabling environment”.
Capacity building for athletes is a process by which athletes obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment, and other resources needed to maximise their performance, become capable of a sustainable livelihood in their field and perform their tasks competently. Skills development is an integral part of the overall capacity building for the athlete and it is defined as the process of identifying their skill gaps and developing and honing these skills.
The absence of the right capabilities and competence also impacts the life goals of athletes. In goal achievement, the skill sets of the athlete are their tools. They need the right skills to build their goal. Without the right skills, they not only frustrate themselves but also waste and spend a lot of time dealing with rudimentary issues caused by the lack of knowledge or lack of skills, as opposed to progressing in their goal. While difficulty and struggles are part and parcel of any goal pursuit, without the right skills, they struggle more than it is necessary and this struggle is very unconstructive and doesn’t help them move forward.
Any athlete also often neglects soft skill development because of a sheer lack of awareness and shortsightedness regarding their career after retirement from their active sports life. Once the athlete gets off the ground, they are often impressed by what supporting staff, coaches, and other personnel in the sports ecosystem have accomplished without realising what they went through to get there. They see their accolades and victories and make gross assumptions about what it takes to succeed. Then they become disappointed when they attempt the goal, only to find out that it’s not as easy as it seems. After failing some attempts, athletes start losing hope of any success in the future and get trapped in the cycle of helplessness and hopelessness discarding the hidden skills and past achievements of their life.
Taking into consideration the current education and job scenario, appropriate job-related skills complement a formal degree in any discipline and increase career opportunities. The job industry too expects the prospective workforce to come prepared with specialised skills.
With the New Education Policy, career readiness and employability skills have become an increasingly critical part of education. Employers are seeking people with a combination of skills that not only covers technical or hard skills but also includes soft skills and life skills. Like any other youth, athletes are also a driving force in our economy and if trained to their full capacity, they can play a vital role in the growth of the country.
Skill development for capacity building of our athletes will help them in numerous ways, some of them include the following:
Job opportunities
As the sports ecosystem is evolving, the demand for supporting and technical staff in the sports industry is growing at the highest pace. With new skills such as in sports management, psychology, marketing, etc. our athletes will be ready to take on new challenges and widen their job opportunities. Moreover, athletes having technical know-how will make them stand out from the crowd and meet the demands of the current highly- competitive job market.
Personal growth
Learning a new skill will broaden the opportunities, at the same time empower one as an individual. Skill training not only provides skills in a particular area, but trains athletes to build and enhance networking, time management & communication skills.
Fewer dropouts
Our athletes today are facing a severe problem with unemployment and underemployment. There are many causes for this, some of which include — dropping out of high school, needing to support one’s family at an early age, lack of quality education, lack of information on the job market, and, most importantly, not possessing the basic skills required by employers today.
Raise the sports standards and performance benchmarks
When high performing athletes acquire new technical and coaching skills, they will set new standards for their fellow athletes practising under them, and with wider exposure and understanding of sports management they will take sports deep into a society where sports are hardly accessible. This will invariably raise sports standards in society leading to a highly competitive, comprehensive sports ecosystem generating higher medal tallies.
Overall, it would benefit athletes if they are encouraged to join skilling programs. It gives them clarity about their means of livelihood, much-needed confidence, and a direct career boost.
For enhancing the soft skills and comprehensive overall development of athletes, SAI National Centre of Excellence, Rohtak, proposes to establish Capacity Building Cell for Athletes (CBCA). The overall goal and objective of CBCA will be to develop comprehensive short-term courses for NCoE’s athletes to:
- To raise the confidence of athletes: These short-term courses will be designed by industry experts to help athletes develop a different set of skills for their competition, sharpen their focus, build confidence, establish communication skills, and develop a unique network of contacts. These courses are compatible with the sports industry and at par with any leading academic institute of National importance.
- Career building: It is well said that if athletes are job-hunting and serious about their careers, then being different is a key to success. They don’t have to try to be like everyone else. Having the same skills, the same qualifications, and the same products and services to offer will simply put them in competition with already successful people. Having something a little different will make them stand out.
- Real-life experience internships: Athletes should be provided real-life teachings and experience in different sports-related fields such experiences/internships will help to gain professionalism in the industry. These internships will be flexible about timing and will not be affecting the regular training schedules.
Domains for the internship include:
- Sports Psychology
- Information Technology
- Nutritional Sciences
- Sports Hospitality & Culinary Skills
- Sports Management
- Coaching & Training
- Sports Marketing
- Entrepreneurship Development
- Personality Development
- Communication Skills
The course program shall be developed by a duly constituted committee comprising of:
- Sports Administrator as Chairperson
- Sports Coach with academic experience
- Subject Experts in the field of Psychology, Information & Technology, Nutrition, Sports Management & Marketing, Communications and Language, and Hospitality
The committees after deliberations will develop the short-term course, including resources required for their delivery, syllabus, and timeline for different domains. After due approval of the competent authority, these courses may be started for in-house athletes of NCoE Rohtak on a pilot project basis in the last quarter of the academic year 2020-21 i.e. from January to March.
Observations will be made on the impact of the course on the overall development of the athletes and a correlation will also be drawn between acquiring soft skills and performance in their sports.
The detailed report of the program shall be further put up to the Competent Authority with recommendations for continuation or improvements in the program so that the best of the project can be applied across other NCoEs for overall capacity building the athletes.
The author is the Executive Director of Sports Authority of India. Views are personal.