Sport for Employability: History
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Louis Moustakas

Most definitions of employability highlight how individual skills, knowledge, or characteristics enable people to find and maintain employment, though some argue that definitions should consider the broader personal and external factors that drive employability. Many current employability recommendations focus on the importance of soft skills and, increasing, sport has been positioned as promising vehicle to develop these skills. This connection between sport and skills has led numerous sport for development (SFD) programmes to explicitly target (youth) employability. In this entry, the background of employability and the general pathways around sport-for-employability programmes are presented. 

  • sport for development
  • sustainable development
  • sport
  • employability
  • employment

1. Definining Employability

The term employability has evaded consistent definition at the academic and policy levels [1][2] but generally refers to how an individual’s skills, knowledge, or characteristics enable them to find and maintain employment [1][2][3]. For instance, in the Higher Education context, it has been defined as “a set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and to be successful in their chosen occupations” [4]. Flowing from this, policy actions and initiatives tend to concentrate on developing or strengthening components related to personal skills and attributes. For instance, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) highlights the importance of education, training and soft skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and communication as essential for employability [5]. Likewise, as the labour market has generally shifted to more non-manual work and put a premium on soft skills, the focus on these individual traits has further grown in relation to employability [6].

Many authors, however, have criticised this individual, or supply-side, focused approach, as it shifts blame to jobless (young) individuals for their predicament, as opposed to acknowledging a lack of opportunity and support in the labour market itself [7]. Recent work has shown how unfavourable conditions, such as those imposed by inequality, poverty or inadequate policies, can drive unemployment [8][9]. Recognising these criticisms, McQuaid and Lindsay [2] argue that employability, or the ability to find or maintain employment, is contingent on more than just individual attributes. As they argue, many prominent definitions and models tend to focus uniquely on “supply side” characteristics and ignore or minimise demand or contextual factors. As such, for them, the trait of being employable is determined by a number of personal and external factors that mutually interact with each other. As illustrated and summarised in Table 1, these can be broadly categorised into individual factors, personal factors, and external factors.

Table 1. Broad Model of Employability, adapted from [2].

Individual Factors

Personal Factors

External Factors
  • Employability skills and attributes (e.g. Personal competences, transferable skills, qualifications)
  • Demographic characteristics
  • Health and well-being
  • Job seeking skills
  • Adaptability and mobility
  • Household circumstances (e.g. care responsibilities, housing quality)
  • Work culture (e.g. support of work within peer environment)
  • Access to resources (e.g. financial capital, transport, social capital)
  • Demand factors (e.g. labour market demand, job offer characteristics, etc.)
  • Enabling support factors (e.g. employment policy)

2. The Role of Sport in Employability

Alongside more general debates and programmes around employability, there has been growing recognition from governments and practitioners of the potential for sport to contribute to economic development and (youth) employability [1][10][11]. This recognition comes from two fronts. First, there is an understanding that sport can provide an attractive and interactive setting that allows for experiential learning and the development of knowledge and skills that are considered essential on the job market. Indeed, due to its widespread appeal as a “shared cultural manifestation”, relatively low cost, and interactive nature, sport has been presented as a vehicle to support development across a wide range of areas [12][13]. In particular, sport programmes have been put forth as potentially effective vehicles to develop soft skills relevant to emplowment [10][14]. For instance, there are longstanding claims, and some evidence, that sport can support the development of competences such as teamwork, communication, discipline or self-confidence [14][15]. Second, the sport industry presents significant potential for economic growth. It is one of the fastest-growing industries globally, encompasses a broad range of sub-sectors, and connects to several other industries [16]. Further, policies in many countries, such as Indonesia, Botswana and Morocco, have identified sport as a prime area for economic diversification and growth [17][18][19]. In short, on the one hand, sport is viewed as an effective vehicle to develop employability skills. On the other hand, sport itself is viewed as a growing industry that can be a vector for employment and economic growth.

As a result of these perceived opportunities, many sport for development (SFD) programmes targeting employability, both within the sport industry itself and in general, have emerged, and employability is now viewed as one of the central areas for SFD practice. Broadly speaking, SFD can be defined as the intentional use of sport, play, or physical activity to support the achievement of development objectives.For instance, recent research suggests that about 17% of programmes focus on the more broadly defined area of livelihoods [20]. Typically, programmes in this area use sport as a hook to attract vulnerable youth or those not in employment or education (NEETS). Once in the programme, these organisations combine sport, skill building and workshops to (re)direct youth towards employment or further education opportunities [1][3]. As such, these programmes can be broadly said to address individual factors related to employability, such as competences, well-being and job-seeking skills. To some extent, due to the interactive and social nature of many of these programmes, they may contribute to developing social relationships as well.

Despite the growing relevance of this approach, there has been limited research regarding the contribution of SFD programmes to youth employability [21], and existing research paints a mixed picture. For instance, Spaaij and colleagues [22], in a study of two European-based programmes, highlight how programmes struggle to provide stable, well-paid employment and address more structural issues around employability while still recognising the positive impacts on individual participants. Likewise, more recent work shows that some programmes may not have well-defined outcomes nor a clear concept of how a programme may contribute to those outcomes [23]. Nonetheless, the existing literature points to participants developing a variety of soft or professional skills [24][25][26], though there remains a need to align those skills with job market requirements and to consider personal or external factors [27].

References

  1. Coalter, F.; Theeboom, M.; Truyens, J. Developing a programme theory for sport and employability programmes for NEETs. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 2020, 12, 679–697, doi:10.1080/19406940.2020.1832136.
  2. McQuaid, R.W.; Lindsay, C. The Concept of Employability. Urban Studies 2005, 42, 197–219, doi:10.1080/0042098042000316100.
  3. streetfootballworld. Team Up for NEETS!: Innovation Through Youth Employability; Berlin, 2018.
  4. Yorke, M.; Knight, P.T. Embedding employability into the curriculum; Higher Education Academy: York, 2006, ISBN 1-905788-00-2.
  5. Brewer, L. Enhancing youth employability: What? Why? and How? Guide to core work skills; ILO: Geneva, 2013, ISBN 9789221275336.
  6. Succi, C.; Canovi, M. Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions. Studies in Higher Education 2020, 45, 1834–1847, doi:10.1080/03075079.2019.1585420.
  7. Enhancing youth employability through social and civil partnership: Monitoring the European employment strategy; Serrano Pascual, A., Ed.; European Trade Union Inst: Brüssel, 2001, ISBN 2930143924.
  8. Amendola, S. Macro-Determinants of NEET: An Ecological Study at the Country Level of Analysis for the Period 1997–2020. Youth 2022, 2, 384–390, doi:10.3390/youth2030028.
  9. Weiss, J.; Heinz-Fischer, C. The More Rural the Less Educated? An Analysis of National Policy Strategies for Enhancing Young Adults’ Participation in Formal and Informal Training in European Rural Areas. Youth 2022, 2, 405–421, doi:10.3390/youth2030030.
  10. Cognac, M. How can sports help to promote youth employment? Available online: https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/comment-analysis/WCMS_232712/lang--en/index.htm (accessed on 27 October 2022).
  11. Dudfield, O.; Dingwall-Smith, M. Sport for Development and Peace and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, London, 2015.
  12. Cardenas, A. Peace Building Through Sport? An Introduction to Sport for Development and Peace. Journal of Conflictology 2013, 4.
  13. Beutler, I. Sport serving development and peace: Achieving the goals of the United Nations through sport. Sport in Society 2008, 11, 359–369, doi:10.1080/17430430802019227.
  14. Hermens, N.; Super, S.; Verkooijen, K.T.; Koelen, M.A. A Systematic Review of Life Skill Development Through Sports Programs Serving Socially Vulnerable Youth. Res. Q. Exerc. Sport 2017, 88, 408–424, doi:10.1080/02701367.2017.1355527.
  15. Coalter, F. A Wider Social Role for Sport; Routledge, 2007, ISBN 9781134227129.
  16. Ratten, V. Sport entrepreneurship: Developing and sustaining an entrepreneurial sports culture; Springer: Cham, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-73009-7.
  17. Putri, R.; Moustakas, L. Sport Entrepreneurship in Indonesia. In Entrepreneurial Innovation; Ratten, V., Ed.; Springer Singapore: Singapore, 2022; pp 89–96, ISBN 978-981-16-4794-9.
  18. Moustakas, L.; Işık, A.A. Sport and sustainable development in Botswana: towards policy coherence. Discov Sustain 2020, 1, doi:10.1007/s43621-020-00005-8.
  19. Commission permanente chargée des affaires sociales et de la solidarité. Étude de la Politique sportive au Maroc, Casablanca, 2019.
  20. Svensson, P.G.; Woods, H. A systematic overview of sport for development and peace organisations. Journal of Sport for Development 2017, 5.
  21. Schulenkorf, N.; Sherry, E.; Rowe, K. Sport for Development: An Integrated Literature Review. Journal of Sport Management 2016, 30, 22–39, doi:10.1123/jsm.2014-0263.
  22. Spaaij, R.; Magee, J.; Jeanes, R. Urban Youth, Worklessness and Sport: A Comparison of Sports-based Employability Programmes in Rotterdam and Stoke-on-Trent. Urban Studies 2013, 50, 1608–1624, doi:10.1177/0042098012465132.
  23. Commers, T.; Theeboom, M.; Coalter, F. Exploring the design of a sport for employability program: A case study. Front. Sports Act. Living 2022, 4, doi:10.3389/fspor.2022.942479.
  24. Burnett, C. Employability pathways in a sport-for-development programme for girls in a Sub-Saharan impoverished settings. Journal of Physical Education and Sport 2022, 22, 863–869.
  25. Spaaij, R. Sport as a Vehicle for Social Mobility and Regulation of Disadvantaged Urban Youth. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 2009, 44, 247–264, doi:10.1177/1012690209338415.
  26. Hayhurst, L.M.; Giles, A.R.; Wright, J. Biopedagogies and Indigenous knowledge: examining sport for development and peace for urban Indigenous young women in Canada and Australia. Sport, Education and Society 2016, 21, 549–569, doi:10.1080/13573322.2015.1110132.
  27. Moustakas, L.; Raub, V.; Moufagued, Y.; Petry, K. From Sport to Work? Exploring Potentials in a Moroccan Sport-for-Employability Programme. Youth 2022, 2, 759–771, doi:10.3390/youth2040054.
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