Training of sport event managers for the South African context

M.Tech.Sport has become the broadest common cultural denominator in almost all societies (Lapchick, cited in Gouws, 1997). As a result, sporting events have become an increasingly popular means for achieving political, cultural and economic benefits for the host nation (Parent, 2008). Consequently, this has led to an increased demand in the value of diverse skills in the sport event management field. This is to cope with the increased complexities surrounding sport event management and thus requires a distinct body of knowledge and skills to be developed (Quatman, 2008). However, concern over the lack of a relevant base of common knowledge (NASPE-NASSM, 1993) as well as pertinent training programmes to prepare sport managers for the contemporary sport events industry has resulted in current graduates not necessarily meeting the needs or expectations of the industry. As a result, there appears to be a gap between the current event management curricula outcomes at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa and the expected competencies of sport event managers in practice. The aim is therefore to develop guidelines for sport event management training in higher education institutions on various HEQF levels (DoL, 2008) to address the competencies required by managers for the South African context. This translates into objectives, namely: i) to identify, conceptualise and unpack sport event management competencies required by sport event managers, ii) to investigate the curricula of sport event management at higher education institutions in South Africa, iii) to investigate the importance of different competencies required by sport event managers in South Africa, iv) to investigate the current level of competencies of practitioners regarding sport event management in South Africa, v) to provide a background on the current education system in South Africa and vi) provide guidelines for sport event management training in higher education institutions at various HEQF levels (DoL, 2008) to address the competencies required by managers for the South African context. The research design is descriptive in nature, with quantitative methods in the form of questionnaires utilised to collect the data. The sample includes trainers¹ from HEIs in South Africa offering sport event management, and subsequently sport event management, as well as practitioners² from HEIs in South Africa and sport event managers from selected sport companies in Gauteng