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, Kick 4 Life and Street football world 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.
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.
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
Urs Kluser, General Secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children.
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 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 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.
In April 2020, Uganda was among the four sub-Saharan African countries selected to work with European Football governing body, UEFA for a children project to support education through football.
The UEFA Foundation for Children, in collaboration with Inter Campus, is supporting projects in Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
Uganda was picked to for the specific project of improvement of gender equality to help to reduce poverty among women, using football as a catalyst to involve more children in education.
This project is intended to give 1500 children via the four countries greater access to education through football.
Football motivates and enthuses young people in a way that no other sport does. 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).
Dorothy Tembo, Acting ITC Executive Director