Joa boosts sport platform with advanced management course
overall sport product.”
The course is designed for staff and volunteers of national federations and other bodies responsible for sport development in their country. Participants are drawn from senior level in the management of their organisation, or those who have responsibility for managing projects in their organisation.
It is essential that participation be fully supported by senior/executive staff of the respective sporting bodies, to ensure the mandate that participants apply the course content to their sport.
Netball Jamaica President Tricia Robinson, who participated, commented: “The advanced sports management course offered by the JOA allowed for the increased ability of persons to be able to respond more effectively to change. Participants would have been able to gain skill sets to allow them to undertake a greater variety of work in their respective sporting bodies.”
Robinson added: “Utilising expert personnel from the varying industries (marketing, accounts) and having them share one-on-one and giving first-hand experiences was priceless.”
Advanced courses are based on the supplied text Managing Olympic Sport Organsations and are to comprise all six modules/ chapters in the text, meaning that participants must participate in every module as part of the course requirements.
Each chapter or module of the book is composed of five days, which includes three distance-learning days (reading the chapter and completing a small case study) and two residential days (general presentation and discussion of the chapter on the first day; and presentation of case study on the second day.
Each course can be conducted over a 12-month period. There are, however, options which permit a shorter time frame, as the case with the JOA’S latest advanced sport management course, which was covered over nine months, beginning in October 2019.
Sports management consultant and course presenter, Paulton Gordon, reasoned that “ultimately, the growth and development of the sporting sector in Jamaica will be contingent on improved governance, strategic planning, execution and administration.
“The advanced sports management module organised by the JOA provides that platform for a cadre of administrators affiliated with local sporting bodies.”
Gordon, who is also president of the Jamaica Basketball Association, added: “It is important that the national federations capitalise on this opportunity as the modules offered are aligned to what obtains in the international space and is consistently updated to reflect current realities.”
A total of 24 personnel participated in the last exercise, an increase of seven from the 2017-2018 group. Among the disciplines that benefited from this latest instalment were aquatics, badminton, basketball, gymnastics, netball, track and field, rugby, hockey, table