The Acting Secretary of the Kosovo Basketball Federation (FBK), Elvira Dushku and the Finance Officer, Ard Islami, from 8 to 15 July 2017, stayed in Newcastle, UK as a participant in the new program FIBA, TIME-OUT.
Participants in FIBA's TIME-OUT program this week started their first module at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK.
The group of 80 former basketball players (40 women and 40 men) from all over Europe has been located in the northern city of Britain as part of the first FIBA program of this kind, which was realized in collaboration with Erasmus +, an initiative of the European Union.
The group has worked at the Northumbria University Business School, which will provide exceptional leadership and management courses for TIME-OUT participants, helping them in the post-career period, hence the athlete's employment in the field of employment other that basketball.
As part of the workshops in Newcastle, TIME-OUT participants visited the rugby club, Falcons. This meeting served for two purposes, first meeting with Falcons club management, and then also to try this very famous game in this part of Great Britain.
After visiting the Rugby Falcons club, they followed to visit the Newcastle United team, which this edition will play in the Premiere League, following a past year at a lower rank.
At the Newcastle United home, participants of this program, in addition to listening to club history, were subsequently welcomed at a solemn dinner by the leaders of this team, as well as by FIBA Europe, conducted by executive director Kamil Novak.
For eight days as the first workshop of this program lasted, the participants were active in the lectures organized at Northumbria University especially for them only, the main themes being leadership and management. Lecturers this week have been prominent professors in these areas in Europe and beyond.
"This will be a very welcome experience for the Federation, then for me, because through this FIBA program, where we are expected to benefit both myself and Ard Islami, we will then turn to others. I say this because I believe that the knowledge we have gained and what we are expected to gain in the program we will use in our daily work we do in the federation and at the same time we will try to maximize that the rest of the office staff to indirectly benefit from this program. I think that this program, except for the federation, will have a big impact on my life and Ard Islamis life, because the knowledge we are expected to take in this program will be something that will mark our lifes forever. I am very happy that I have been given the opportunity to be part of this program, which for the first time is implemented by FIBA, " said Elvira Dushku, u.d. Secretary General of BFK.
It should be noted that this project is unique to FIBA because it targets the recently retired players from the basketball who now want to continue their career in sports outside of the field.
Among the 80 participating names of the program there were also Olympic, European and club level champions. Among the names that emerge are Bostjan Nachbar, Ann Wauters, Jiri Welsch, Maria Stepanova and Nevriye Yilmaz.
TIME-OUT is a project that focuses on integrating players who have completed active careers and now have to enter the labor market, thus showing the importance of thinking about what awaits this people in the next life sports.
This program will last about 18 months and in the end the participants have two opportunities to be certified or receive a diploma from FIBA and its associates, including Northumbria University.
Next Workshops the 80 participants of the program will be in Ljubljana, Slovenia, then in Budapest, Hungary, in order to fully protect their report at the Mies, Switzerland, FIBA headquarters. In the meantime, TIME-OUT participants will have the task of conducting online seminars, research, reports, until they are all finally expected to be certified or graduate.