The National Sport School in Pembroke has been awarded EU funds for a three-year Erasmusplus project called ‘Preparing Student-Athletes for Transitions’.

The project is aimed at helping students to prepare mentally and physically to overcome cultural, linguistic and climatic challenges that they may encounter when they migrate to play professional sport overseas.

The project also aims to help staff members to better understand the challenges and learn how best to support student-athletes to ease transitions.

A number of student-athletes from the school have already migrated to play sport overseas and other students wish to do the same.

The project is led by and is based on studies carried out by the school’s sport psychologist Adele Muscat, who found that Maltese athletes face a number of challenges when they migrate to play professional sport overseas due to the tight-knit community they grow up in.

The other partners in the project are Vasaramaen Koulu School in Turku, Finland, and another in Cyprus.

Thirteen students and three staff members from the local school and another group of students and staff from Cyprus recently took part in an exchange at the Finnish school.

During the visit the students participated in workshops, discussions, sport practices, games and a conference.

The main theme of this first phase of the project is ‘How to be a healthy athlete’.

In groups, the students discussed and compared their views on topics such as sport, exercise, rest and recovery, nutrition, mental preparation and drugs in sport.

The project is supported by the European Union Programmes Agency and the Education Ministry’s Programme Implementation Directorate.

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