During summer 2008, the commission undertook a focussed review of skills and employment:
- To address feedback from informed stakeholders that the need to ensure the robustness and scalability of the programme will be critical as procurement activity increases closer to Games time;
- To assess activity of key stakeholders to present opportunities to local employees and small businesses (in conjunction with procurement and commercial partnerships review); and,
- To evaluate the capacity of support for potential employees and suppliers to the programme.
Key findings of the report include:
- Good progress in the development of programmes to enable people to obtain jobs on the Olympic Park, to gain additional training or to gain other skills, many of whom were previously unemployed
- New relationships have been forged between various government agencies, voluntary sector groups, and the Olympic delivery bodies themselves.
- A high level of commitment from the Olympic Delivery Authority and its contractors to get local people into jobs on the Olympic Park site
- Enthusiastic and determined commitment by all involved and at all levels to ensure that this once in a lifetime opportunity is not squandered
The plans and programmes for the delivery of the Games employment and skills commitments were made in good times. The commission thinks that these should be reviewed to see how realistic they are and whether anything needs to be done differently in the challenging economic times ahead
Finally, the commission reflected on ‘what is a sustainable job?’ and came up with the following definition that it hopes will be helpful but will challenge thinking too.
A sustainable job is one that improves an individual’s life chances and benefits the community – environmentally, socially, and economically.
To read the review in full please go to our reports section to download the report.
