April 22, 2013
Path needed into sports management
There’s a call for internship programmes to give Māori and Pasifika sportspeople a taste of sports management.
Massey University researcher, Ryan Holland, says the percentage of Māori and Pasifika in sports administration and governance positions is far lower than the number of players.
In a report prepared for Sport New Zealand, he recommended national sports organisations identify people at the grassroots level and give them opportunities to develop leadership and governance skills through workshops and mentoring.
“The key factor recurring throughout the search was that there didn’t seem to be a pathway for Pasifika and Māori once they had finished their sporting participation. it was like ‘that’s the end of their connection with sport’. If a National Sport Organisation can somewhat provide opportunities for Pasifika and Māori then that would be great,” he says.
Ryan Holland says sporting boards need a mix of ethnicities, gender, age and experience to be innovative and better represent the playing population.
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