News
27.4.2026 Something special is coming at SHIFT Business Festival!🏀
Finnish basketball legend Tiina Sten will be joining our exclusive ATTACH-U X SHIFT Workshop (28.5.2026, Turku, Finland) – a unique gathering focused on athlete transition, identity, leadership and life after sport. See her video greeting from our Linkedin -page. Together with 20+ former elite athletes, sport-minded business leaders and managers, we will create an honest and high-level discussion around how the strengths built in sport can create value far beyond the game.
This is an invitation-only event, designed to bring together people who truly care about supporting athletes in their next chapter.
However, if you already have a SHIFT ticket, are genuinely interested in the topic, and feel you could contribute to the conversation, you are welcome to contact Arto Kuuluvainen (Turku University of Applied Sciences) for more information.
A big thank you to Tiina for supporting this important initiative. We look forward to an inspiring session.
24.4.2026: ATTACH-U X FC TPS
The ATTACH-U Erasmus+ Sport project was proud to be presented at the opening event of the Mustavalkoinen Verkosto business network, hosted alongside the TPS vs Gnistan Veikkausliiga (i.e. Finnish elite league) -match at TietoAreena Club in Turku, Finland.
The event brought together more than 30 representatives from a wide range of industries, creating an excellent environment for discussion, networking and new collaboration opportunities between business, higher education and sport.
During the evening, Turku University of Applied Sciences introduced its Sales and B2B Business research group (Sales and B2B Business (Research Group, Turku University of Applied Sciences)), current cooperation opportunities with companies, and ongoing project activities. A special focus was placed on ATTACH-U and our mission to support athletes in career transition.
Many athletes develop highly valuable competences throughout their sporting careers: resilience, discipline, teamwork, leadership, goal orientation and the ability to perform under pressure. Through ATTACH-U, we aim to help identify these strengths and support athletes in transferring them successfully into working life, entrepreneurship and new career paths after sport. It was inspiring to see strong interest from local companies and stakeholders in the topic of athlete employability and dual career development.
In the pictures, for example, Finnish football legend Kasper Hämäläinen , TPS CEO Rasmus Holma (both former elite footballers) and TPS team manager Tapio Hirvaskari together with Harri Lappalainen and Arto Kuuluvainen from project coordinator Turku UAS.
Thank you to Mustavalkoinen Verkosto, FC TPS (TPS Jalkapallo) and all participants for a great evening and meaningful discussions.
20.4.2026: ATTACH-U X SHIFT BUSINESS FESTIVAL
We continue ATTACH-U’s SHIFT Business Festival series with a greeting from Tony Salmelainen. A former NHL player, performance coach, and career transition strategist, Tony brings a rare combination of elite sport experience, lived transition, and practical insight into what happens when identity, role, or career begins to change.
Check the video from our Linkedin-page.
At SHIFT, we will explore an important question: what does a sporting career really teach us, and which skills truly transfer into working life and the business world?
In Turku UAS’s (Turku University of Applied Sciences) workshop, From the Field to Business – Skills Learned Through Sport as a Competitive Advantage in Working Life, the discussion goes beyond performance and competition. It also looks at identity, social capital, community, networks, and how capabilities developed in sport can create value far beyond the arena.
More than 20 sport-minded business leaders and former elite athletes have already signed up, from world champions to legendary figures across multiple sports. An exceptionally engaging encounter is ahead at the intersection of sport, leadership, and working life.
We can still welcome a limited number of individual participants, provided you already have a SHIFT ticket. If you are interested in joining, please contact Arto Kuuluvainen.
The workshop will be facilitated by Arto Kuuluvainen, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and Tony Salmelainen, Elämän Pelikirja -rakkaudesta urheilijoihin community.
📍 SHIFT Business Festival, Turku
🗓 May 28, 2026
⏰ 14:00–14:45
📌 Amphitheatre
Warmly welcome to join us in creating new insights, meaningful encounters, and fresh networks across industries, generations, and sports.
16.4.2026 ATTACH-U X SHIFT BUSINESS FESTIVAL
We are launching ATTACH-U X SHIFT Business Festival series with a greeting from Rasmus Holma, CEO of FC TPS (TPS Jalkapallo), a football club based in Turku. You can find it from our Linkedin-page.
At SHIFT, we will explore an important question: what does a sporting career really teach us and which skills truly transfer into working life and the business world?
In Turku UAS’s (Turku University of Applied Sciences) workshop, “From the Field to Business – Skills Learned Through Sport as a Competitive Advantage in Working Life”, we will take a practical look at how competencies built through sport can be identified, articulated, and turned into value for organisations.
The discussion is not only about performance and competition, but also about social capital, community, networks, and identity building in times of change.
More than 20 sport-minded business leaders and former elite athletes have already signed up — from world champions to legendary figures across multiple sports. An exceptionally engaging encounter is ahead at the intersection of sport, leadership, and working life.
We can still welcome a limited number of individual participants, provided you already have a SHIFT ticket. If you are interested in joining, please contact Arto Kuuluvainen.
The workshop will be facilitated by Arto Kuuluvainen, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and Tony Salmelainen, Elämän Pelikirja community (Elämän Pelikirja -rakkaudesta urheilijoihin).
📍 SHIFT Business Festival, Turku
🗓 May 28, 2026
⏰ 14:00–14:45
📌 Amphitheatre
Warmly welcome to join us in creating new insights, meaningful encounters, and fresh networks across industries, generations, and sports.
15.4.2026 New article: Beyond Sport: Why Athletes Have More to Offer in Sales Than Employers Realise
A new article by Dr. Arto Kuuluvainen, published in Talk Webmagazine by Turku University of Applied Sciences, highlights an important message at the core of ATTACH-U: when an elite sports career ends, athletes do not leave sport empty-handed. They carry valuable strengths into working life, but too often those strengths remain unrecognised.
The article explores why athletes may have far more to offer in sales and other professional roles than employers often realise. Elite sport develops resilience, self-leadership, discipline, teamwork, adaptability, and the ability to perform under pressure. These are not marginal qualities. They are highly relevant in working life, especially in fields where trust, persistence, and human interaction matter every day.
At the same time, the article makes clear that athlete transition is not only about getting hired. It is also about rebuilding direction, confidence, and identity outside sport. One of the biggest barriers is not a lack of competence, but the difficulty of translating sporting experience into language that employers understand. Athletes often have transferable skills, yet they may struggle to describe them, while employers may overlook them if they focus too narrowly on conventional CVs and career paths.
This is exactly why ATTACH-U matters. The project supports athletes nearing the end of their careers through mentoring, peer support, tailored learning pathways, and practical transition tools. It also develops concrete pathways into entrepreneurship, coaching, and B2B sales. Within the project, Turku University of Applied Sciences has a special responsibility for the B2B sales pathway.
The article is a timely reminder that the end of a sporting career should not be viewed only through loss. It should also be seen as a moment to recognise, translate, and strengthen the human capital athletes already carry with them into whatever comes next.
Read the full article here:
Beyond Sport: Why Athletes Have More to Offer in Sales Than Employers Realise
17.2.2026: ATTACH-U brings the transition conversation into events and workshops
ATTACH-U is extending the discussion on athlete transition beyond project meetings and into public events, workshops, and wider networks connected to sport and working life.
ATTACH-U will be visible in Finnish events during spring 2026, including Erkki Alaja – sports management symposium, Elämän Pelikirja Charity Golf and a workshop at SHIFT Business Festival. The planned workshop theme focuses on the transferability of skills developed through sport into other industries and professional contexts. This matters because one of the central goals of ATTACH-U is not only to study athlete transition, but also to create practical discussion, experimentation, and cross-sector dialogue around it. Bringing athletes, former athletes, educators, and business professionals into the same room is a concrete way to build that bridge.
For ATTACH-U, visibility is not just communication. It is part of the project’s wider mission: making athlete transition support more practical, more connected, and more present in real working-life environments.
15.2.2026: New spotlight on athletes’ transferable skills in working life
A new column in Finnish magazine Y-lehti by Dr. Arto Kuuluvainen highlights one of the key themes of ATTACH-U: the value of athletes’ transferable skills in recruitment, working life, and career transition.
ATTACH-U recently highlighted a new column by Dr. Arto Kuuluvainen of Turku University of Applied Sciences on the value of athletes’ transferable skills in working life. The column argues that athletic backgrounds are still too often overlooked in recruitment, even though sport develops many of the qualities employers say they value most: goal orientation, resilience under pressure, teamwork, self-leadership, adaptability, and persistence. The article also points to a less visible but equally important strength developed through sport: social capital. Athletes learn to build trust, understand roles, work within teams, and commit to shared goals — all of which are highly relevant beyond sport.
At the same time, the message is clear: transition is not automatic, and athletes need support in recognising and articulating these strengths in the language of work. This is exactly where ATTACH-U aims to contribute: by helping athletes make their competence more visible, more understandable, and more usable in new professional environments.
25.1.2026: ATTACH-U launches communications partnership with Elämän Pelikirja
ATTACH-U has launched a communications collaboration with Elämän Pelikirja, a well-known Finnish sport-life storytelling podcast that brings athlete transition stories to a broad audience.
We are excited to announce a new communications partnership between ATTACH-U and Elämän Pelikirja, one of Finland’s most recognised podcast platforms focused on athletes’ life stories and transitions beyond sport. According to the public project communications, the podcast has already published more than 110 episodes and reaches thousands of listeners per episode. This collaboration is a natural fit for ATTACH-U.
Public posts from the project team describe Elämän Pelikirja as an early inspiration behind the development of the ATTACH-U idea, and the partnership helps connect research and project development with real athlete stories and lived experience.
By working together, ATTACH-U can reach athletes, former athletes, and wider sport communities through a format that is personal, accessible, and already trusted by its audience. It also strengthens the project’s goal of making athlete transition support visible beyond academic and institutional settings.
Read more about Elämän Pelikirja -project: Elämänpelikirja
17.1.2026: ATTACH-U kick-off meeting held in Münster
ATTACH-U has officially kicked off in Münster, Germany, where project partners came together to align on work packages, timelines, and next steps for the first phase of the project.
From 13 to 16 January 2026, the ATTACH-U consortium gathered at the University of Münster for the project kick-off meeting. The meeting marked the official start of the collaboration and brought together partners from Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Norway for intensive planning, working sessions, and shared discussion around athlete career transition.
During the kick-off, the consortium aligned on delivery, timelines, and responsibilities across the project’s work packages. These include project management and quality assurance, guidance and mentoring support, and the three practical pathways developed within ATTACH-U: from athlete to entrepreneur, from athlete to coach, and from athlete to salesperson.
The programme also included visits to the Movement Science Open Lab and the GRAIL VR Lab, as well as a welcome in Münster’s historic Peace Hall by the city’s Sport Mayor. The kick-off created a strong foundation for the next stages of development, piloting, and international cooperation.
1.12.2025: ATTACH-U officially launched
ATTACH-U has officially launched as an Erasmus+ Sport project supporting elite and former athletes in their transition to life after sport. Through tailored pathways in entrepreneurship, coaching, and B2B sales, the project aims to help athletes build confidence and direction for their next chapter.
We are proud to introduce ATTACH-U – Athletes’ Transition Tools for Achieving Horizons. ATTACH-U is a new Erasmus+ Sport project created to support athletes as they move beyond elite sport and begin building meaningful new pathways in working life. The project brings together partners from Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Norway, and is coordinated by Turku University of Applied Sciences. ATTACH-U focuses on a challenge that many athletes face: although sport builds resilience, teamwork, discipline, and leadership, the transition out of sport can still be complex. Over the coming years, the project will develop and pilot practical tools, mentoring-based support, and three career-oriented pathways in entrepreneurship, coaching, and B2B sales. We look forward to sharing project updates, tools, pilot activities, and new resources as ATTACH-U progresses across Europe.