INSEP France
1. INSEP, France
source :
Athletes’ Careers Across Cultures, Natalia Stambulov, phd. 2013
“In France, there is a national Dual Career policy through an integrated centric state approach involving the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Education. Dual Career is mandatory based on several legislative texts which require the Universities and Sports institutions to enable athletes to follow dual career pathway - through studies arrangements and individualized follow-up (1984 Sports law, 2015 law proposal on athletes’ protection for instance). The Sports Ministry requests the sport Federations to define their high level policy with national and regional elite centers (hosting Aspirant, Young and Elite athletes identified on ministerial lists). Both Federations and elite centers then report to the Sports Ministry on how the mandatory dual career is implemented. This approach is mainly reflected in the Institut National du Sport, de expertise et de la Performance (INSEP), a public body under the sport governmental department and the “Grand INSEP” network gathering 17 regional Sports Elite Centers (CREPS). This organization support the Olympic and Paralympic federations for the dual career of their athletes. Furthermore, in INSEP elite athletes develop not only their sport, but also their careers, thanks to the training and educational programs offered on a one-to-one basis. In INSEP, the individualized support given to athletes involved in a dual career project includes e-learning and tutorship provisions. INSEP and “Grand INSEP” network, each regional Ministry of Sports representation and each Federation have one person responsible of the dual career implementation.”
www.sportknowhowxl.nl/nieuws-en-achtergronden/nieuwe-publicaties/...
Strengths - e-learning, studies arrangements and exams adjustments, personal support and career orientation, financial support through federations to pay school fees.
Weakness - The necessity to deal with Ministry of Sports and Ministry of education.
INSEP -http://www.insep.fr/insep-sites, 11, avenue du Tremblay 75012 PARIS, [email protected],
[email protected],
Phone: (33) 1 41 74 42 38
Year of foundation: 1975
Name of the director: Ghani YALOUZ (CEO)
Institutional dependency: Ministry in charge of Sports. The desire to win medals while maintaining a balance in which sport's human, educational, social and health values are central has always been upheld by the French political system, with laws regularly governing the practice and organization of assistance for athletes. The first law, introduced in 1975, determined that the State would provide social assistance to high-level athletes in the form of special working arrangements in accordance with training and competition requirements. A second law, which came into effect in 1984 and is still current (amended), set out the role of sport federations, regional government bodies and companies related to elite sport, with the aim of finding concrete solutions to elite athletes' social and vocational insertion. This law also provides criteria for determining when an athlete qualifies to be termed a ‘high-level athlete’, which then confers legal status on them regarding education and vocational insertion. Four categories are distinguished: (a) elite category for athletes who have qualified for major competitions such as the Olympic Games, and the World and European championships; (b) senior category for athletes who do not meet the elite category criteria but have qualified for other international competitions; (c) youth category for athletes who have qualified for major youth competitions such as European or World championships; and (d) conversion category for athletes who no longer fit any category but have met the elite criteria during their career or have been in one of the remaining two categories for at least four years. Athletes remain in the elite category for two years with a possibility to renew this status, senior and youth categories are valid for one year (also renewable), and a maximum of five years is allowed for the conversion category. Sports Ministries from the 1970s onwards created four successive dual career systems: (a) sport-education schools (1974–85), (b) training and education standing centers (1985–95), (c) paths for ascending to elite sport (1995–2009) and (d) paths of excellence in sport (from 2009). While education was central within sport-education schools, with sport organized around it, training and education standing centers put sport preparation first. Education was given in nearby schools, through special agreements, with education organized around sport requirements. In addition to the Sports Ministry, the National Institute of Sport (INSEP) has always been determined to provide optimal conditions for reconciling elite sport success with appropriate education. The challenge has been the same for 30 years: to find innovative solutions that allow athletes to think about their socio-professional future a long time in advance (i.e. from their entry to high-level sport) and then organize it smoothly. Since 1980, INSEP has been pointing out the importance of orientation assistance (i.e. educational planning) in decreasing the risk of athletes' failure or withdrawal from their athletic or educational path. Nevertheless, with the exception of athletes from INSEP (who benefited from special conditions), elite athletes encountered major difficulties in following their studies because of their integration in regular schools which were not adapted to the specific requirements of elite sport. To overcome these difficulties, in 1995 the Sports Ministry introduced a new high-level sports system, which differed from the previous ones inasmuch as it was no longer based on a structural organization (i.e. sport-education schools, training and education standing centers) but, rather, on a systemic organization within a network (i.e. paths for ascending to elite sport, paths for excellence in sport).
"The desire to win medals while maintaining a balance in which sport's human, educational, social and health values are central has always been upheld by the French political system, with laws regularly governing the practice and organization of assistance for athletes. The first law, introduced in 1975, determined that the State would provide social assistance to high-level athletes in the form of special working arrangements in accordance with training and competition requirements. A second law, which came into effect in 1984 and is still current (amended), set out the role of sport federations, regional government bodies and companies related to elite sport, with the aim of finding concrete solutions to elite athletes' social and vocational insertion. This law also provides criteria for determining when an athlete qualifies to be termed a ‘high-level athlete’, which then confers legal status on them regarding education and vocational insertion. Four categories are distinguished: (a) elite category for athletes who have qualified for major competitions such as the Olympic Games, and the World and European championships; (b) senior category for athletes who do not meet the elite category criteria but have qualified for other international competitions; (c) youth category for athletes who have qualified for major youth competitions such as European or World championships; and (d) conversion category for athletes who no longer fit any category but have met the elite criteria during their career or have been in one of the remaining two categories for at least four years. Athletes remain in the elite category for two years with a possibility to renew this status, senior and youth categories are valid for one year (also renewable), and a maximum of five years is allowed for the conversion category.
Sports Ministries from the 1970s onwards created four successive dual career systems: (a) sport-education schools (1974–85), (b) training and education standing centers (1985–95), (c) paths for ascending to elite sport (1995–2009) and (d) paths of excellence in sport (from 2009). While education was central within sport-education schools, with sport organized around it, training and education standing centers put sport preparation first. Education was given in nearby schools, through special agreements, with education organized around sport requirements. In addition to the Sports Ministry, the National Institute of Sport (INSEP) has always been determined to provide optimal conditions for reconciling elite sport success with appropriate education. The challenge has been the same for 30 years: to find innovative solutions that allow athletes to think about their socio-professional future a long time in advance (i.e. from their entry to high-level sport) and then organize it smoothly. Since 1980, INSEP has been pointing out the importance of orientation assistance (i.e. educational planning) in decreasing the risk of athletes' failure or withdrawal from their athletic or educational path. Nevertheless, with the exception of athletes from INSEP (who benefited from special conditions), elite athletes encountered major difficulties in following their studies because of their integration in regular schools which were not adapted to the specific requirements of elite sport. To overcome these difficulties, in 1995 the Sports Ministry introduced a new high-level sports system, which differed from the previous ones in as much as it was no longer based on a structural organization (i.e. sport-education schools, training and education standing centers) but, rather, on a systemic organization within a network (i.e. paths for ascending to elite sport, paths for excellence in sport)."
Source: www.insep.fr
Grand INSEP
The INSEP is engaged in a concerted work with the CREPS, the national schools and the campus of Brittany to pass from the "INSEP Paris" to a "Grand INSEP" whose stake is to make network work centers performance training, structured and labeled as "open" platforms in the service of the athlete and its management.
Each center (CREPS, Schools, National Federation Center) undertakes to support the federations (Presidents and National Technical Directors - DTN) in the organization and efficient deployment of sport and PES "Parcours de l'Excellence Sportive" from detection, to the very high performance defined by the Sports Directorate in agreement with the sports movement. A label will identify the centers that make up the Grand INSEP by displaying all the guarantees necessary for the training and optimal training of top athletes and their staffs, with the aim of obtaining podiums at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. , World Championships and European Championships. The Grand INSEP Mission contributes to enhancing the institutions' contribution to the performance and preparation conditions of athletes according to the objectives identified by the Performance Optimization Mission - MOP, especially for non-INSEP athletes. The organization of a national training offer to raise the level of expertise of French sports executives in the regions is also one of the priorities of the Grand INSEP institutions.