KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) says it will deliver the Advanced Sport Management Course (ASMC) virtually to stakeholders in the Diaspora, a first in the history of the apex governing body.

The ASMC, an educational initiative by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through Olympic Solidarity and the JOA, is a professional diploma course in advanced sport management and is offered globally in member countries of the IOC.

“Education now more than ever with technology is a virtual commodity that is exportable in a global digital economy of which the Jamaican Diaspora is a critical homegrown cohort. Our first ports of call will be the Americas, UK and Japan,” said JOA President, Christopher Samuda.

The association noted that late last year it successfully completed a third edition of the course since the new administration assumed office in 2017 and this year it aims to complete two editions as it makes the course accessible to more stakeholders.

“The reach of the JOA’s education policy is plural and beyond Jamaica for if we are to build a viable local sport industry with bankable competency all hands of the global yard must be on deck,” Samuda said.

With online learning and capabilities becoming more relevant with the advent of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the JOA said it is also planning to extend its current internship programme to the Diaspora.

“The programme will become a pioneering, dynamic and itinerant product which the JOA will offer to Jamaicans overseas as we afford them, firsthand, an Olympic education and experience while creating symbiotic and lasting synergies between home here and home abroad,” Secretary General/CEO, Ryan Foster explained.

The JOA said it is aggressively pursuing its sporting academics agenda of which its historic ‘Stamina’ educational series is a critical element that exposes an array of the stakeholders to customised training conducted by local and overseas experts.

Last year, the governing body said it successfully hosted four editions, each of which was oversubscribed.

“Education has become fiercely competitive and the introduction of ‘Stamina’ shows that the JOA has the guts to compete and be competitive and to be gutsy in our deliverables in empowering our members and other stakeholders with knowledge-based skills,” Foster said.

The JOA said it will continue to deliver education as part of its strategic design to strengthen the governance and business modules of the curriculum of sport as a pre-requisite of a knowledge-based and commercially viable sporting industry.