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Enhancing the Education of Young Athletes Through Mobility
Start date: Jul 1, 2014, End date: Jun 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Partick Thistle Football Club (nicknamed the Jags) are a professional football club from Glasgow. The club’s academy is the ThistleWeir Youth Academy which was formed in 2013 following a donation of £750,000 from Colin & Chris Weir (the UK’s biggest lottery winners). The academy operates six teams within the Club Academy Scotland Games Programme and covers teams from under 11s right the way up to under 17s. This Erasmus + Project will complement the new vocational programme for our U17 squad which will act as the first steps into further education for players registered to the club. This VET learner mobility project will address key Eramus+ priorities by targeting and benefiting participants living in an economically deprived region of Glasgow who are at a significant disadvantage in the labour market. This mobility project will target youth players between the ages of 16-17 years of age who are registered youth squad footballers employed by Partick Thistle FC, a professional football club based in Maryhill region of Glasgow. The Maryhill parliamentary constitutuency has unemployment rates ranging from 7.5 to 12.2%, measured as the proportion of the economically active population claiming Jobseekers Allowance (source House of Commons Library). Mobility will allow our young players to experience the training methods at a UEFA-acknowledged Centre of Excellence in Turkey. This project will allow a group of 18 Partick Thistle FC trainees to gain experience of the training methods at an acknowledged (UEFA) Centre of Excellence in Turkey. The Turkish host partner is a regional training and coaching complex used by top Turkish and European professional teams. Innovations in physiological development, dietetics, coaching delivery, tactical analysis and cardiovascular training will be studied and used to improve skills acquisition and player development. Improved success rates for participants in being offered professional player contracts are anticipated, while improved academic attainment and European exposure will improve employability in secondary careers. Consequently this project will prioritise the following specific objectives : 1. Improved physiological development of participants via the implementation of innovative training regimes as a direct result of structured Erasmus+ mobility programme. 2. Skills and technology transfer between the Academy mobility participants and players in Europe. 3. Improved employment rates for mobility participants in professional football careers. 4. Improved linguistic skills for participants and an awareness of the cultural diversity within another European country. 5. Increased maturity and sense of initiative. 6. Increased self-empowerment and self-esteem. 7. Enhanced intercultural awareness. 8. More active participation in work and social environments. 9. Enhancement of soft skills. 10. Increased motivation both on and off the field. Key project objectives involve the enhanced acquisition of key training innovations which will result in improved player development and enhanced skills levels for the participant during mobility. Partick Thistle FC will enhance the validation of mobility by awarding all mobility participants with a Certificate of Mobility on completion of the placement which recognises the defined set of specialist vocational and occupational skills and processes acquired during mobility. Partick Thistle FC will publicise the project through local and national media, to include television, radio and national and local newspapers. This will be complemented by our European partners, who will actively participate in the dissemination processes by issuing press releases to local media throughout the mobility. Friendly matches played by the participants against host opposition will be publicised in the host region and attendance by local spectators actively encouraged.
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