Nyon/Geneva − A new curriculum using football to teach entrepreneurship and employability life skills to young people in developing countries is being launched by the International Trade Centre (ITC), the UEFA Foundation for Children,Kick4Life and Streetfootballworld.

The curriculum will be unveiled at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on 12 August 2020, to mark International Youth Day by acting ITC Executive Director Dorothy Temboand Urs Kluser, General Secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children.

‘Football motivates and enthuses young people in a way that no other sport does,’ Ms.Tembo said. ‘The investments made by the football industry in the economic and social development of young people can support greater entrepreneurship, innovation and action towards advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This newly launched curriculum is an important goalpost in helping young people build new skills to reach new heights. My hope is that it can be replicated and used around the world.’

‘The UEFA Foundation for Children is pleased to be a partner in such a valuable, wide-reaching project. Young people from a range of developing countries will undoubtedly benefit hugely from learning valuable life skills such as communication, decision making and teamwork all whilst enjoying playing the beautiful round ball game,’ Mr. Kluser said.

The curriculum was developed to support the Kick for Trade initiative, which fosters football-based life skills to promote social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurship for young people. The initiative was jointly created by ITC’s Youth and Trade Programme and UEFA Foundation in May 2019.

After initial pilot activities in The Gambia and Guinea in 2019, the curriculum was shaped and developed to enable youth to build transferable skills like leadership and teamwork by playing football.

Streetfootballworld, a global network of 135 organizations using football as a tool for social change, contributed their strategic football-for-development expertise to the curriculum. Its Lesotho-based member organization, Kick4Life, delivers a wide range of football-based health, education, gender and employability programmes. Kick4Life offered crucial input to create the methodology behind the sessions in the new curriculum.

Life skills that form part of the toolkit include problem solving, creative thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy, assertiveness and composure, and resilience.

The curriculum is designed to be delivered by trained life-skills coaches in inclusive environments, and it centres on 11 sessions each on youth employability and entrepreneurship. Only the basic minimum of equipment is required to deliver the sessions successfully, making the curriculum suitable for many contexts where many young people can benefit.

On-site pilot activities of the Kick for Trade initiative are currently on hold in The Gambia and Guinea due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the curriculum is set to be rolled out in countries that feature ITC youth-related projects with entrepreneurship and employability components once restrictions are lifted.