One of the main challenges athletes face is combining elite sport with other pursuits such as education and/or work. While research on the dual career "education and sport" pathway has intensified during the past decade (Stambulova & Wylleman, 2018), research on the dual career "work and sport" and transition into a new professional career is lacking. In response to this lack of empirical data, this symposium presents the recently finalized Erasmus+ Sport project B-WISER: "Be a Winner in Elite Sport and Employment before and after athletic Retirement". Research centres, elite sporting institutions and companies from six countries joined forces with the aim to investigate the employability of athletes in three specific career stages: when they are active in elite sports, when they have retired from elite sports and prepare for first-time employment, and when they are employed in their post-athletic career. The first presenter will explain the aims, work packages (WPs) and impact of B-WISER. The second presenter will focus on the roles, contributions and interactions of "elite sport and employment" career support providers in Europe (WP1). The third presenter will provide an overview of the competencies athletes require to optimize their employability during the three specific career stages (WP2). The fourth presenter will focus on the reasons why employers (do not) hire athletes, and their perceptions of how athletes’ value in the labour market can be maximized (WP3). Finally, the fifth presenter will approach the findings of the B-WISER project from a Slovenian perspective.