London 2012 chief admits that training 70,000 Games Makers has been the biggest challenge so far

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London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton has admitted that training the 70,000 Games Makers volunteering to help at the Olympics and Paralympics has been the biggest challenge that his organisation has faced so far in the lead up to the Games.

The London 2012 Games Maker programme is being presented by worldwide Olympic Partner McDonald's and tomorrow morning, they will host the first of their 32 orientation training events for the volunteers at Wembley Arena and in cinemas across the country.

The events are the first stage in the training programme for the 70,000 Games Makers and they will be the largest London 2012 events to be held outside of Games-time.

"In our six year build up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, this Games Makers training exercise is as big of a challenge as we have faced so far," said Deighton, who was appointed London 2012 chief executive in April 2006 following a successful 22-year career with investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

"But we are very confident and we are delighted by the quality of applicants we have had for the roles.

"The key for us is to make sure that as well as being friendly and welcoming, these Games Makers actually have a clear knowledge of what they are doing and that they can actually help sort out problems.

"The way we are doing that is through a consistent training, planning and deployment of volunteers so that each of them knows what they will be doing and where they will be located during the Games.

"It is a huge logistical challenge but one that we are confident we can get right so that we have Games Makers out there that can really solve problems for the relevant parties."

The orientation events will provide an introduction to the heritage and importance of the Games, as well as an insight into what working at London 2012 will be like, including the sports, venues and the roles.

They will be the first time that Games Makers and members of the wider workforce will be brought together.

Jean Tomlin, the London 2012 director of human resources, revealed the scale of the recruitment process as she said that nearly 250,000 had applied to volunteer for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"We have had near a quarter of a million applicants from right across the UK," she said.

"We have already interviewed 80,000, made offers to 50,000 and by the end of the process; we would have interviewed around 100,000.

"What has been very pleasing is the take up of the volunteers as we have had around 95 per cent of offers accepted – a figure that is absolutely unprecedented.

"We don't expect that figure to fall going through the process but we have a reserve pool of around 15,000 to 20,000 in contingency."

Tomlin revealed that the average age of the Games Makers is around 35 while there is an equal 50-50 split of male and female volunteers.

"We are very pleased with the diversity," she said.

"We have a spread of young volunteers around 15 to 18 and older volunteers up to the age of 80, with the bulk of them in between that at around 35.

"We have a 50-50 split of male and female volunteers and we are also pleased that we have a number of volunteers with a disability and also a large number of ethnic minority groups involved."

Tomlin added that around 3,000 of the volunteers would be involved with the security operation at the Games but that their role would largely consist of helping spectators with their luggage as they go through the "mag and bag" airport style security to get into the London 2012 venues.

"These orientation training events are really the start of the process and getting the Games Makers prepared for their specific Games-time roles," she said.

"At the session at Wembley Arena tomorrow, we will have 40,000 people attending in total.

"There will be four sessions and 10,000 at each session so that illustrates the scale of this operation."


Source
By Tom Degun
www.insidethegames.biz