Ecology of Dual Careers - Report Work Package 3 (Denmark): Dual Career Development Environment Monitoring Tool (DCDEM)

In general, we perceive that the data collected via DCDEM provides and adequate picture of the Dual Career environments on the gymnasium level (where most of the participants came from). Dual career policies and initiatives have been on the agenda for the last 30 years in Denmark, and this is reflected in the data. In general, there is a high agreement about the 10 DCDE features (which seem to be highly developed in Denmark) of athletes and stakeholders. Flexibility is in place, and there are dedicated persons employed in the DCDEs whose main task is to coordinate the efforts and support athletes’ DC. However, the shift from the individual to the DC environment is a new agenda in Denmark, which is also reflected in the results. For example, sports friendly schools are a typical DCDE in Denmark, and the feature that scored lowest is integrated effort. There the challenge is that different cultures (school culture and sports culture) with different values and beliefs needs to be integrated. Increased communication and mutual understanding among stakeholders from the different domains (sport, school, private) could stimulate improvement.