The University of Trento and Hockey Pergine have signed a cooperation agreement to open a programme combining academic education and a sporting career.
Its purpose is to keep talented young people in sports and educational systems.
The agreement was signed, on Wednesday, 7 June, by the University’s Director General, Alex Pellacani, and the President of Hockey Pergine, Antonio Avancini.
The meeting was also attended by Paolo Bouquet, Rector’s delegate for sports, Maurizio Meneghini, vice-President of Hockey Pergine, and Luca Cristellon, member of the team’s steering board and supervisor of youth teams.
The dual career programme is being implemented because both the University and the club believe that it is important to support young people as athletes and students, in compliance with European legislation that encourages initiatives of this kind.
Back in 2011 the University of Trento opened the first dual career programme in Italy, TOPSport, designed to support professional athletes to reconcile their training and competitions with a university education.
Hockey Pergine acknowledges that Italian hockey players need this type of support and dual career programmes, because training takes place in locations that are often far from universities and many have to abandon their sport career if they want to pursue their studies.
The team is well known in Italy’s minor professional league (Campionato Nazionale serie B - Italian Hockey League) and has a number of youth teams, with players who attend the University of Trento and others who are about to enrol on its courses.
The agreement has a duration of three years starting from 2017-2018, and implements a programme targeted to athletes who play with Hockey Pergine in the professional team and/or who are particularly talented (for example, have been called to play in the national team) and are enrolled on the University of Trento.
The student-athletes selected by Hockey Pergine in agreement with the University of Trento will be part of a programme that offers a number of services for their dual career. They will therefore have a sports career with Hockey Pergine and an academic career at the University of Trento.
The University will give these students-athletes the academic support they need to keep up with their sports career: like TOPSport athletes, they will have the opportunity to make flexible arrangements for the exam session and to receive tailored support for their study plan.
Hockey Pergine, among other things, will select athletes who are interested in studying at the University of Trento but will also design a specific sport and training programme for them. To maintain their place in the “TOP Team UniTrento – Hockey Pergine”, student-athletes will have to meet a set of requirements in sports and in their studies.
The University of Trento had already signed an agreement of this type with Aquila Basket at the end of 2016 and is currently exploring the opportunity of further collaborations with other local teams.
For more information:
University and career Guidance, Internships and Student collaboration Division
tel. 0461 283246
studentiatleti [at] unitn.it