Elite Schools of Football certified by the German Football Association (DFB) play a key role in the German talent development model. This week, TWIN conducted a Master Class at KGS Hemmingen.
The relevance of the dual career topic for football is quickly explained. Only 13% of professional footballers in Europe have post-school vocational education – compared to 53% of the male population in the EU (FIFPro, 2019). Additionally, long-term unemployment is three times higher among low-qualified workers than among those with high qualifications (European Commission, 2016).
However, a dual career represents more than just a safety net for the future. Systematically engaging in activities alongside sport and sport career transition planning shows a significant positive impact on athletic performance and career tenure (Saunders, J., & Pink, M., 2014; Lavallee, D., 2019). In addition, a dual career can foster mental health of players in and beyond the sporting career, as the exploration of occupational or ideological alternatives to sport acts preventively to athletic identity foreclosure, and contributes to a balanced lifestyle (Brewer, B., & Petitpas, A. J., 2017).
Dual career support in German youth football
In joint cooperations between professional clubs, education institutes, and the DFB, Elite Schools of Football provide aspiring players in Germany with dual career structures to combine competitive football and secondary education. As one of 38 programmes across the country, 2. Bundesliga club Hannover 96 and comprehensive school KGS Hemmingen have been collaborating for 15 years.
Since 2021, TWIN has supported the Elite School of Football in further enhancing their system. The common approach is entitled “Plan A”.
Assessing programme potential
For the purpose of monitoring their system performance, TWIN recently designed a digital self-assessment tool for the school. This tool enables the timely detection of system barriers in four central areas of development and allows for effective countermeasures and strategic upgrades to the dual career programme.
Based on the first internal measurement in February 2023, our Founder & CEO Wolfgang Stockinger designed a TWIN Master Class targeting teachers, school counsellors, and sport coordinators as part of KGS Hemmingen’s workplace training. The workshop linked dual career in professional football with the topics of sustainable talent development and systemic health.
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“Youth football programmes have experienced new recent dynamics. Optimising the coordination, communication and cooperation in their associated dual career development environments, as well as upskilling both athletes and staff are key to systemic health and performance.”
Wolfgang Stockinger
Founder & CEO, TWIN
Part 2 of the workshop involved a discussion of the school’s system measurement results. The common findings will now be used to plan programme adaptations expected to be implemented from the next academic year on.
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