Malta FA embarks on international project targeting education dropout
In keeping with its commit‐ ment to use the popularity of football to promote good causes, the Malta FA is embarking on a new EU‐funded project aimed at raising awareness about school drop‐outs, in the process identi‐ fying effective ways to tackle this problem.
SCALE 2023‐2025 is the name of this project which will see the Malta FA team up with several partners, namely the National Associations of Romania, Moldova , Azerbaijan, Pro‐Lega Italy, together with the Euro‐ pean Vocational Training Asso‐ ciation (EVTA) and ForModena, a vocational organisation in Modena. The University of Mod‐ ena and Reggio Emilia is the aca‐ demic partner of this project which is primarily intended for students/players aged 14 to 19.
Education dropout is still a considerable problem in Europe with about 10 per cent of youngsters leaving school or training, and to this end SCALE will seek to deliver these specific goals:
establishing flexible school‐ football dual career paths to fa‐ cilitate school achievements and reduce dropout within young players, thus empowering insti‐ tutional networks between schools and football teams; reach out to football teams and schools on the need to jointly find effective ways to reduce school dropout; instruct coaches in educating young players on the importance of school atten‐ dance and achievement, and more generally to be active citi‐ zens in the EU society; address‐ ing the need for professional, semi‐professional and non‐pro‐ fessional football teams to take care of players’ school achieve‐ ments in formal institutional policies.
The project, which is endorsed by UEFA and the UEFA Founda‐ tion for Children, will seek to de‐ vise SCALE guidelines defining how to create and implement dual career paths that favour youngsters’ full commitment in both football and school within diverse EU contexts. The sus‐ tainability of SCALE will be guar‐ anteed by: the introduction of specific football policies safe‐ guarding school achievement at national level (by the involved football associations); a power‐ ful dissemination sustained by UEFA and the UEFA Foundation to their 55 NAs which could ex‐ tend the dual career experience on a large‐scale in EU. SCALE re‐ lies on the role of football in ad‐ dressing relevant societal problems, thus raising sport’s potential for social change.
The Malta FA will host the kick‐ off meeting for SCALE, which is spread over three years, on 2 and 3 February, 2023.