UK charity gets £330,000 to make martial arts more accessible

OXFORD, U.K. - March 29, 2021 - PRLog -- PRIMAE) Participation and Recreation through Inclusive Martial Arts Education and E-learning seeks to revolutionise the martial arts sector. The project, funded by Erasmus+ and awarded by the British Council and Ecorys, will create the first ever accessible E-learning platform with OFQUAL qualifications that embed inclusion into the coaching of martial arts. By creating employment opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged people in martial arts, the €330,000 project (n.2019-1-UK01-KA204-061975) is a direct response to the European Commission's call to increase the employment of those aged 20-64 to 75% and the employment of people with disabilities.

The team comprises a diverse range of partners with unique skills and experience. These include Ikkaido (England), Ikkaido IMA (Ireland), Aux Couleurs Du Deba (France), Areadne (Greece), University of Cyprus, SVIF (Sweden) and EURO-NET and Futuro Digitale (Italy). The project is halfway complete, and we would love to share the progress we have made.

The organisations collaborated extremely well during the first year of the project, with each playing to their strengths and providing useful knowledge and insight in their respective fields. The partners researched good practices in inclusive E-learning which would lay the foundations for the development of the Intellectual Outputs.

Raymond Sweeney, Ikkaido CEO and Project Coordinator, said "The objectives of the project are very ambitious and so we have been working extremely hard, despite all the challenges that COVID-19 has created in partner countries. We all aspire to develop a project that we are proud of – one that will create genuine and lasting improvements to the quality of life of disabled and disadvantaged people through accessible sport, HEPA, education and employment.  Our ultimate goal is for the project to be officially recognised by the CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) as a good practice case study for inclusion and accessibility in sport and E-learning. All of our partners are passionate about this, and with their help we are on track to achieve it."

Ikkaido's Europe-wide initiative can be viewed at www.primae.eu and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IkkaidoPrimae.