The British Olympic Association (BOA) is today delighted to launch the BOA Athlete Career Programme, in partnership with Adecco, which will support British athletes through their competitive careers and beyond.

The programme will be delivered in cooperation with the established networks of Performance Lifestyle in the Home Country Sports Institutes (HCSIs), and the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust (DKH Legacy Trust), which focus on giving athletes the skills and training needed to allow them to take up the employment opportunities available through the networks.

As part of its recent strategic review, the BOA evaluated how to ensure the best possible support is provided to Olympic athletes, before, during and after competition, in order to allow them to focus on performance during their competitive career.

The BOA recognises the excellent career development work being carried out by the existing programmes at the Performance Lifestyle teams in the HCSIs, which support athletes who are in training or transitioning out of competition, and the DKH Legacy Trust, which supports retired athletes, particularly through its “harnessing talent” programme.

As the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the BOA’s role will be to work directly with Adecco to see to it that further career support services are made available to complement the services already available to athletes through HCSIs and DKH Legacy Trust.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in cooperation with Adecco, is running the IOC Athlete Career programme, which provides support and services in the areas of employment, education and life skills to Olympic athletes on a global scale.

The BOA Athlete Career Programme will:

• Provide placement support for athletes, through the extensive network of the Adecco group in the UK. A pilot has been started, and a number of athletes have been successfully placed.

• For example – Craig Figes, GB Men’s Water Polo Captain: Late last year, Craig Figes was contemplating whether he could afford to stay on the GB Water Polo programme. He was working part-time as a geography teacher at Manchester Grammar School and, with no Lottery Award at that time, was struggling to make ends meet. Craig worked closely with David Platt, his Performance Lifestyle Adviser, to try and identify other employment opportunities in Manchester that might fit in with his training and teaching schedule. The pilot scheme with Adecco came at the perfect time and the proactive work by the Manchester Adecco branch led to Craig joining the Environmental Division of Bruntwood in less than six weeks.

Craig commented that “all in all, the experience has been a very positive one. Adecco helped immensely and the placement with Bruntwood has enabled me to get through a tough financial period and, most-importantly, stay on the GB Water Polo team and continue to pursue my Olympic dream.”

• Following the London 2012 Olympic Games, a series of workshops and an Athlete Career Fair will be provided to enable those retiring following London 2012 to focus on competing until the Games, and be properly supported afterwards in their transition.

• Provide access to the Adecco suite of over 6,000 online training courses, on topics such as presentation skills, project management and computer software programmes. Career workshops will also be run to help athletes start planning for their career after sport.

• Give athletes needing to train abroad access to the international support network of the IOC Athlete Career Programme provided by Adecco, through the BOA Passport Scheme.

Andy Hunt, British Olympic Association Chief Executive, said:
“At the British Olympic Association we place the interests of the athletes at the heart of everything we do. The Athlete Career Programme aims to have a direct positive impact on performance, by increasing the career opportunities available to athletes and further encouraging them to focus their full attention and dedication on their training and not worry about their post-competition careers.

“This is a great example of how the BOA works together with outstanding partners – Adecco, the Home Country Sports Institutes and the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust – utilising their expertise to help British athletes ensure a smooth transition at the end of their competitive sporting careers.”

Steve Girdler, Director of London 2012 Partnership at Adecco, said:
“Olympic athletes within the UK are dedicated to being the best in their sport and strive to be the best in the world. We are proud to cooperate with the British Olympic Association, The Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, and the Home Country Sports Institutes, by providing our career services to these athletes and help them make a successful transition from sport to the workplace, where they can bring their unique qualities to businesses around the world.”

Nick Slade, Head of Performance Lifestyle, EIS, said:
“It’s great that the work of the HCSIs has been recognised and that the service we have put in place to support athletes on a daily basis delivers against the aspirations and ideals of the BOA Athlete Career Programme. Adecco’s offering in the UK complements that provided through Performance Lifestyle and provides us with the opportunity to provide an even greater service to the athletes we support, in particular the job placement opportunities enabled through their extensive client network.”

Dame Kelly Holmes, Double Olympic Champion and Chair of the DKH Legacy Trust said:
“Part of what the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust does is to help retiring sporting champions answer the question ‘what next?’ – and I’m thrilled that the BOA has seen the value of our work and asked us to deliver the Athlete Career Programme for retired Olympians. We are looking forward to helping these elite sports performers make the most of the skills and expertise gained through a lifetime of competing, once their time on the sports field is over”.

Notes for editors:
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to transform British lives through the power of the Olympic values and the success of Team GB. The BOA’s role is to prepare the ‘Best of British’ athletes for, and lead them at, the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. The BOA delivers extensive support services to Britain’s Olympic athletes and their National Governing Bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values and brand in the UK. For further information, go to: www.olympics.org.uk :

Adecco General Staffing is the global leader in employment services, connecting people to jobs through its network of 6,600 offices in more than 71 territories. In the UK alone it has over 120 branches and a client base of over 33,000 organisations from all areas of commerce and industry. Adecco retains over 35,000 temporary workers with around 250 permanent staff placed each week. The Adecco Group, based in Zurich, Switzerland, is the world’s leading provider of HR solutions. With over 28,000 FTE employees and more than 5,700 offices, in over 60 countries and territories around the world, Adecco Group offers a wide variety of services, connecting more than 500,000 colleagues with over 100,000 clients every day. The services offered fall into the broad categories of temporary staffing, permanent placement, outsourcing, consulting and outplacement. The Adecco Group is a Fortune Global 500 company.

Performance Lifestyle™ is strategically led by the EIS and delivered by over 30 dedicated practitioners across the Home Country Sports Institutes (EIS, SIS, SINI, SW) and is available to athletes currently on [and transitioning off] World Class Programmes, or other high performance programmes supported by the Institutes.
Performance Lifestyle™ has received significant financial investment from UK Sport, £3.2 million over the current four year cycle and has two main objectives: to help athletes develop the personal skills required to cope with the demands of high performance and the professional skills that will support successful post athletic careers. For further information go to www.eis2win.co.uk

About the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust:
The Trust was set up by Dame Kelly in July 2008, having retired from competitive athletics after winning two Olympic Gold Medals in Athens 2004. It inspires young people to find and fulfil their potential in sport or in life through a workforce of elite performers. Retiring and retired elite performers are supported to excel in post competition careers and encouraged to give back to sport and young people via the services of the Trust and its partners. The Trust supports young people to participate, excel and stay in sport, and helps disadvantaged young people to find and believe in their own talents. For more information, please visit www.dkhlegacytrust.org Further information please contact:

British Olympic Association: Phil Wilkinson, Philip.Wilkinson@boa.org.uk / 0207 842 5721 / 07525 951067.
English Institute of Sport: Rebecca Roberts, Rebecca.Roberts@eis2win.co.uk / 0870 759 0418 / 07899 064352.
Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust: Louise Wolsey, Louise.Wolsey@dkhlegacytrust.org / 07501 729673.
Adecco: steve.girdler@adecco.co.uk / 07780 606006.