With a new training programme starting, the Athens 2004 Volunteers Programme is now in full swing: volunteer applications have reached 138,000.
Over 55,000 personal interviews have been conducted in Greece, and over 45,000 candidates living abroad or in the more distant parts of Greece are being selected by telephone interview and by special questionnaire in lieu of a personal interview.
Offers of volunteer jobs to the selected candidates began in December 2003 with official written offers on behalf of Athens 2004. Volunteers are thus being placed in the posts where they will serve at Games-time. So far, over 3,500 volunteers are assured of their final posts. Athens 2004 Volunteers tried and tested in the first and second clusters have reached 2,500.
The training programmes scheduled for the spring and summer of 2004 will offer broader skills and useful experience that the great majority of volunteers will be able to put to good use in the post-Olympic period. Special training of volunteers in other divisions with special requirements, or departments which will need a large number of volunteer personnel, is expected to be phased in over the next few months. Divisions such as Technology, Spectator Services, International Relations (for IOC assistants), Olympic Family Transport and Transport Operations have already scheduled training and briefing sessions for their own volunteers.