SESI-SP: From formation to sports performance

by Eduardo Augusto Carreiro

Excerpt of article from ICSSPE’s Bulletin no. 70/2016 – see further reference at the bottom of the page.

SESI-SP is a private organisation that invests in education, culture, sports, quality of life, and social responsibility. It has on its portfolio some important programmes for promotion of quality of life of the worker in the industrial segment, and also a basic education network catering to over 100 thousand students. Sports is developed through a systematic and continuous proposal that starts out from Physical Education in the school, passing through the Athlete of the Future (Atleta do Futuro) programme and sports training, finally reaching high-performance sports, these bring programmes with aims that are different yet interdependent. This means that SESI-SP is a school rather than a club, developing sports with the rights of a sports institution, where the educational process is a top priority at all stages.

Introduction
The Social Service of Industry (Serviço Social da Indústria - SESI) is a private institution according to Brazilian civil law, structured federatively so that it may provide social assistance to industrial workers, and also similar activities throughout the country.

SESI plays a key role in social development in Brazil, making an effective contribution towards the improvement of the quality of life of the industrial worker, his or her family members, and also the community in general, through its services in the fields of education, health, sports and leisure, culture, meals, and others.

SESI is also a partner of the companies, giving active support for the implementation and development of projects offering social benefits to employees.

SESI’s main mission is that of promoting the quality of life of the industrial worker and his or her dependents, with a particular focus on education, health and leisure, and also to encourage the socially responsible management of the industrial company. (Source: www.sesisp.org.br)

The Social Service of Industry (Serviço Social da Indústria - SESI) was set up back in 1946 by a group of businesspeople to promote education, health, and the general well-being of the industrial worker. SESI is maintained through a compulsory law, stating that a total equivalent to 1.5% of each company’s total payroll is withheld and passed on to the institution, thereby establishing the base of SESI’s budget.

SESI is present in all Brazilian States and also in the Federal District (these being known as regional departments) and also has a National Department, whose main role is that of organising the information and devising national policies and strategies; however, each regional department has the autonomy to develop its own strategic goals.

Similar to SESI, there are other institutions that were created for the same purpose and also receive compulsory contributions from other segments of society (commercial firms, micro and small businesses, among others), such as SESC, SENAC and SEBRAE.

The mainstay of the activities of SESI-SP is education. Indeed, SESI has a basic education network catering to 100 thousand students; all the programmes developed are based on educational development.

In the light of this scenario, SESI-SP has a sports qualification system, with a special sports training programme for children aged between 6 and 17 (the Atleta do Futuro programme), where children and young people are invited to experience a variety of motor activities through to the age of 10 (sports initiation) and then expanding knowledge as from the age of 11, this latter phase being known as sports training and having the aim of increasing practice time and also to enhance sports-related skills, rather than premature sport selection, keeping young people practicing sports for a longer period of time. These two programmes take place parallel to each other, and reach their climax with the high-performance sports programme, where teams and sportspeople are qualified and participate in the country’s most important sports competitions in several different sports.

Each of the programmes mentioned and also Physical Education at School, as offered throughout the SESI network, has different aims and goals, yet they are all interdependent. By giving value to the experience of the students, increasing motor variability, while not excluding talent and preparing new sporting idols, aware of their respective roles, yet far from mercantilist logic.

SESI-SP also has in place a programme management system, based on the “Pedagogy of the Example”, where students, athletes and the community are encouraged to continually practice physical exercise and sports.

The Pedagogy of the Example consists of three pillars: the conceptual pillar, where theoretical bases are discussed; the communication pillar, where all the people involved should have sufficient information so that the actions are well known; and the practice pillar, with several different strategies, that brings together professional athletes, new athletes that are being prepared, students from the basic formation programmes, and students from the schools.  These strategies seek to establish a bond between athletes and students, and also encouragement for the students to turn their communities around. These include sports workshops, sports activities, Ambassadors of Sport, with the election of students from each and every classroom, by school year and also by school, assigning a symbol athlete and a tutor (a teacher or co-ordinator, among others) who shall monitor the development of the school activities and also offer guidance.