One of the main challenges that active and former elite athletes face isto pursue a satisfying vocational career during and after their termination insport. In order to enhance elite athletes’ employability and employmentopportunities, the ‘Be a Winner In elite Sport and Employment before and afterathletic Retirement (B-WISER)’ was initiated in 2017 with the support of theErasmus+ Sport programme of the European Union. The aim of this invitedsymposium is to disseminate and discuss the research findings of the first workpackage of the B-Wiser project. More specifically, the speakers will focus onsport, educational and job-market stakeholders’ perceptions of athletes’ employabilityissues and as well as their roles, cooperation, and efficiency in supporting activeelite athletes, just retired athletes, and former athletes during their firstemployment. The symposium will consistof two oral presentations and a panel discussion. The first presentationwill provide a general outline of the B-WISER project by presenting theconsortium, the aims, work packages and methodology of the project. The secondpresentation will focus on an evaluation of roles, cooperation and efficiencymeasures of the career support services from a European perspective. In thefinal panel discussion, career research and assistance experts from the sixparticipating countries (i.e. Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain andSweden) will discuss various aspects of the vocational career support to activeand retired elite athletes from their national perspective.