Athanase, Nenesse and Albert complete advanced sports management course |29 February 2012

The certificates presentation ceremony was held at the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) headquarters at Roche Caïman,

Socga president Antonio Gopal and course director Bernard Denis presented the certificates to the three successful candidates in the presence of National Sports Council (NSC) chief executive Alain Volcère, other NSC officials, and Socga executive committee members.

The advanced sports management course offers those who took part the opportunity to reach the diploma in sports management – a standard between the Masters degree (Memos) and certificate in sports management offered by the International Olympic Committee and supervised by the Olympic Solidarity.

During the course, the students followed six modules, exploring different topics and situations as well as look for solutions and answers to issues and problems based on the theories and concepts they have understood.

The methods by which the theories and concepts are dissected come in three main strategies: presentations by the course director and course facilitators; extensive reading by the students; and studying case studies and students developing own case studies to be presented to fellow students.

No formal examination was carried out but the students had to work on six case studies – two of which should have been extensively developed and finally one was chosen by the student and the course director to be sent to the Olympic Solidarity in Lausanne for final evaluation.

Twenty-five individuals from 10 sports federations and associations started the course and six completed. But only three prepared their final case studies and presented them to a panel before finally sending them to the Olympic Solidarity.

In his address, Socga president Gopal asked all sports federations and associations to grasp all the opportunities being offered to provide them knowledge which will then play a vital role towards the management of their sports and the achievement of good results.

He also noted that it is never too late for anyone to follow higher education.
For his part, Mr Denis congratulated Monique Athanase, Gretel Nenesse and Philip Albert on overcoming the final hurdle. He congratulated them for showing determination and their will to learn and understand the theories and concepts.

Mr Denis added that the fast-changing world needs innovative people as very soon the theory of ‘business as usual’ will no longer be valid.

On behalf of fellow graduates, Ms Athanase talked about the benefits of the course, saying it has given them more than sufficient knowledge about how to improve existing strategies, prepare and implement new strategies which could bring success to their respective sports federations.

She stressed on the necessity to build solid, effective and efficient human resources as this is the most important component of any organisation.

Ms Athanase also thanked the Socga, the International Olympic Committee, the NSC, the course director and the resource persons who helped them during the course.

The course was launched by Socga president Gopal in April 2010 with the aim of getting sports administrators to acquire much-needed experience.

A second course is expected to start in June and will be open to all sports federations and associations and other sports institutions.