Sunshine Coast schools will be able to embed sports tech teaching into their curriculum through a partnership between industry and Council.
Sunshine Coast Council has joined forces with learning experts Sports Tech College to provide students a stepping stone into the emerging multibillion-dollar industry.
Mayor Rosanna Natoli said the collaboration would make a sports technology, sports digital and sports innovation curriculum available to the region’s primary and secondary schools, with council funding the program over the next three years.
Mayor Natoli said the Australian sport tech sector currently employed more than 13,000 people and was set to boom in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
She said the new program would provide a pathway for young people considering further study and careers in a range of areas such as sports performance analytics, wearable technology and digital health.
“The program forms part of Council’s legacy ambitions towards the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and includes creating sports tech expertise and future sports entrepreneurs within Australia.
“Technology, data, IoT and AI are some of the fastest growing tech industry sectors within sports, health, gaming and entertainment,” Mayor Natoli said.
“We are committed to building future-ready, world-class students who understand the real-world today and the opportunities of tomorrow.”
Mayor Natoli said the micro-credential program aligned with Council’s commitment to fostering innovation and supporting the local economy with tech education highly relevant for the emerging knowledge and digital economies identified in the Sunshine Coast Regional Development Strategy 2013-2033.
She said the full-year elective curriculum program Sports Technology Towards 2032 would be made available to all schools and teachers within Years 5-10 in the Sunshine Coast region.
“Through this partnership, Sunshine Coast schools will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Sports Tech College to deliver specialised courses.”
Sports Tech College founder Matt Dobell said the Sunshine Coast offered two outstanding opportunities to leverage towards the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Sunshine Coast International Broadband Network which provided the fastest connection from the east coast of Australia to Asia and access to a high speed/low latency WiFi 6 Network for testing new technology in a real-world environment.
“These both offer significant opportunities for sports technology sector entrepreneurs and educators like us,” Mr Dobell said.
He said teaching school students practical, job-ready knowledge and digital practice was critical to their development and understanding of future technologies and possibilities.
Interested schools can contact Mr Dobell via email .
