Volunteers for 2022 Games could be given qualification

VOLUNTEERS for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games could receive a ‘meaningful qualification’ for their participation.

One of the biggest hurdles facing organisers is the recruitment of 12,500 volunteers for the Games.

Some of these roles will need to be filled by skilled professionals, but the vast majority require no formal training and organisers are expecting thousands of the region’s students to volunteer.

City council leader Ian Ward, speaking at the West Midlands Combined Authority’s board meeting, said he was keen to encourage people from the ‘more deprived areas’ of the city to also volunteer.

Organisers are discussing the possibility of a formal qualification for participants with local universities, which he hopes will encourage more people to sign up.

“One of the key things we wish to deliver is to get young people out of unemployment as a legacy,” said Cllr Ward. “We have to have 12,500 volunteers to help deliver the Games, and we want to recruit some of those volunteers from the more deprived areas of Birmingham and the wider region.

“We know that lots of students will volunteer, so there’s an immediate opportunity to buddy up people from deprived areas with students, young people in particular from deprived areas. We’d give each of them a mentor, and then we are talking to further education colleges and universities about a bespoke course that might be created to give people a meaningful qualification out of volunteering for the Birmingham Games.”