China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF) and the Canadian athletic lifestyle brand Lululemon jointly launched a public welfare project titled "Companion Program: Support the Reemployment of Retired Women Athletes" on April 21.
The newly-unveiled charitable initiative was aimed at fostering a training curriculum and offering financial aids for business start-ups in a move to help retired athletes achieve growth in the midst of their transition.
In her speech at the inaugural ceremony, Nan Jing, CWDF's Assistant Secretary-General, said that the foundation will align the program with community-level and corporate resources, provide needy women with suitable practice platforms, set up entrepreneurship assistance fund for extraordinary trainees, and help women aspirants realize their dream.
The program will focus on the problems faced with retired women athletes in their career transition. According to a preliminary survey, over half of athletes are willing to continue with sport-related occupations after their retirement. However, the major obstacles for many people to achieve a sound career transition include unfamiliarity with the workplace and limited occupational skills, resources and capital.
A trainee said that she wants to listen to more advice and draw inspiration from other people's experience and feeling and strengthen her capacity building because she feels worried about occupational choices available.
The initiative is primarily designed to provide retired women athletes with whole-chain support in terms of expertise, resources and capital. To effectively address practical problems confronted with retired women athletes, it will adhere to holistic, professional, precise and pragmatic approaches in terms of curricular design, bring together teachers from Beijing Sport University (BSU) and leading figures in sport-related sectors, and roll out a wide range of courses relating to sport industries, occupational skills, mental building, career development and planning, and social practices.
Liu Lifeng, President of BSU Corporate Management Co., Ltd, spoke highly of curricular arrangements of the project. Noting that retired women athletes are a valuable asset for the sport industry, he said their career transition is not only relevant to personal development but also social expectation for women's strength and the sport spirit. Liu stressed that as an assisting unit of the program, BSU Sports Education Technology Co., Ltd. will deepen its cooperation with business partners and help trainees perform well in their future entrepreneurship and employment.
Under the support of Beijing Professional Sports Personnel Management Center and other parties in relevant sectors, the initiative is set to recruit 10 outstanding women athletes, who are likely to undergo retirement transition, in the first round and guide them to embark on a new career.
Photos from CWDF
(Source: CWDF/Women of China)
Editor: Lei Yang
