Elite basketball players celebrate graduating with Northumbria

Top basketball players from across Europe have celebrated graduating on a range of leadership and management courses delivered by Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School.

The 47 players were taking part in FIBA Europe’s TIME OUT 2.0 education programme – an initiative to help professional basketball players build careers when they retire from the sport. FIBA Europe, the European office of the Basketball World Governing body FIBA and has been working in partnership with Newcastle Business School since 2017 to deliver the programme since it was launched in 2017.

Co-funded by the European Union's Erasmus+ Sport programme, TIME-OUT has now helped over 120 players gain academic and professional qualifications to help them transition from elite player to international coach or a move into business management. Collaborating with other partners, including the Newcastle-based Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) ,the German Sports University Cologne, and FIBA’s own Business of Sport programme, academics from Newcastle Business School equip students with valuable professional development and leadership skills.

FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis met with the graduates at the recent ceremony in Switzerland with Northumbria University's Business Development Manager Vincent Robson, alongside German Sports University of Cologne's senior lecturer Stefan Walzel and TASS UK research lead Dr Emma Vickers. 

FIBA Executive Director Kamil Novak said: "Congratulations are in order of course to every single proud graduate today, but our project partners also deserve a big round of applause. They had the foresight and capacity to see the tremendous potential of TIME-OUT since its inception and they have joined us on this journey, which of course would not have been possible without the European Union's Erasmus+ scheme. So, I would also like to thank both our academic partners in Northumbria University, the German Sports University Cologne and TASS, as well as the Dutch basketball federation, the French federation of basketball, the Italian basketball federation, the Czech Basketball Federation and the Hungarian basketball federation."

Vincent Robson, Business Development Manager at Northumbria, added: “Partnering with an organisation like FIBA Europe and working with some of the world’s top basketball stars who have represented their country and played in top leagues like NBA in the United States is hugely prestigious. Together with FIBA and our other partners we have developed the TIME-OUT programme over the past few years, offering enhanced career opportunities so that as many elite players as possible can benefit. The success of TIME-OUT and the positive outcomes for students reflects the strength of Continual Professional Development courses that we run with our partners.”