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Quality Control
This tool assists to evaluate dual career environments. By using the tool, a theoretical structure for how to plan and implement a quality control evaluation can be built.
Quality control is fundamental to ensure that an environment is providing efficient and effective dual career support to its athletes. Regular reviews provide data and information which can be used as feedback to identify areas of strength and areas of weakness within a dual career environment. Without comprehending these strengths and weaknesses, exploiting assets and targeting improvements to address weaknesses is not possible.
Many different evaluation methods are available. To ensure that appropriate areas are measured, a clear understanding of the purpose of the quality control evaluation is required.
This is where the tool Quality Control comes into play. It presents a few evaluation methods that could be used or adapted to the dual career context, guiding them through considerations and providing a template with example evaluation questions. The tool can be used stand-alone or in combination with Policy Push and Comms Plan.
Follow the instructions to apply this tool and browse our manifold resources to find out more about the addressed topic.
The Evaluation Guide (pdf) helps you gain a clear understanding of what to consider when conducting a quality control evaluation. It presents a systematic guideline to frame the purpose of the quality control evaluation, choose an appropriate evaluation method and develop the evaluation questions to finally help formulate an environment enhancement action plan.
The System Quick Check (xls) is a simple method to evaluate and monitor your dual career environment against an established set of criteria. These criteria rest upon the Study on the Minimum Quality Requirements of Dual Career Services of the European Commission. The analyzable items cover 3 dual career dimensions: athlete, entourage and sectors (sport, education and labour market). The Excel-based assessment is easy to undertake as it minimum only requires input from one person who can own the whole process.
Other (more extensive) surveys and templates for monitoring dual career environments exist and can either be used or adapted to meet your needs. Another tool built by the EU project “Ecology of Dual Careers” can be accessed via the Useful Links section below.
- Perform the steps as outlined in the Evaluation Guide (pdf).
- Based on your specific needs, follow up by either using our System Quick Check (xls) or another available evaluation method. If you decide to use the former, read the guidelines in the Instructions tab.
- Go to the Self-Assessment tab. Fill in the column “Perceived importance to your dual career environment” by assessing how relevant you feel this component is to your system. The rating reaches from 0 (not all relevant) to 4 (extremely important).
- Assess the current score for each component (respectively its existence in your system) in the column “Quality rating in your environment”. The rating refers to effectivity and reaches from 0 (not present) to 4 (outstanding). The cells in the rating columns will change colour depending on the score you input. The cell will go green if the component scores highly (3 or 4) or red if it scores low (0, 1 or 2). Regarding dimension 3, only fill in scores for the sector(s) that your environment belongs to.
- Look at the areas that are important to your environment but currently have a low rating for quality (i.e., green in the first column and red in the second). Act on the findings to enhance your dual career environment in these areas. Make sure you repeat periodically to ensure continuous improvement.
- Ecology of Dual Careers (2019): The Dual Career Development Environment Monitoring Tool (& Project Overview)
- European Commission (2016): Study on the Minimum Quality Requirements of Dual Career Services
- European Commission (2016): Study on the Minimum Quality Requirements of Dual Career Services
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In practice
The tool "Quality Control" in action: See real-life examples of its application in EU dual career practice.