The Olympic Movement? What's the history of the
organization? How do you run a sports venue and manage a
tournament? What events have been arranged for people with
disabilities? What basic skills do volunteers need? How do you deal
with emergencies?
Detailed answers to all of these questions and many, many more
can be found in 'Olympic Reader' which is a set of 13 books for
Olympic training compiled by the Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The books are set to hit the desks of BOCOG staff as well as
100,000 Olympic volunteers, millions of primary, secondary and
university students and employees in various service sectors in
Beijing.
Seven books from the series have already been published and are
on sale. The remaining six books, including the Olympic Reader for
College Students and the Olympic Reader of Oral English, are in the
pipeline.
Jin Huasheng, deputy director of BOCOG's Human Resources
Department, said agreements had been signed with six publishers to
print the books. They'll sell at cost price.
For example the Olympic Reader for Primary School Students will
sell for 7 yuan (88 US cents) and the others will be priced at
under 20 yuan (US$2.5) each. Nearly 800,000 Olympic Reader books
have been published and sold around China already, Jin said in an
exclusive interview with China Daily.
The books also include a reader for BOCOG staff, volunteers,
employees in the service sector, Beijing residents and students. It
also includes a reader on Paralympic knowledge, a guide for
spectators and a handbook of oral English.
"The books are the fundamental materials for our Olympic
training," said Jin. He's also the deputy head of the Beijing
Olympic Training Co-ordination Team which comprises various
organizations and government departments.
"It's the first time that BOCOG has officially compiled
textbooks for Olympic training and we're trying to make the Olympic
Reader a practical and readable reference not only for BOCOG staff
but also for the general public," Jin said.
For instance, the Olympic Reader of Oral English, due to be
published this month, has two volumes…primary and advanced. They
include useful words on the Olympics, about sports competitions and
daily communications.
"So the readers can learn how to chat with foreign visitors not
only about general topics but also specific sports issues," Jin
added.
The Olympic books, which were prepared by more than 200 experts
and professors over the course of a year, are part of the overall
Olympic training program put together by BOCOG and government
agencies.
"Olympic training is a very complicated task and of great
importance to the success of the Games," Jin said. He said Olympic
training was divided into three levels.
The first level targets Olympic staff including BOCOG employees,
volunteers, national technical officials and Olympic contractors,
who number an estimated 200,000.
The second level includes nearly 1 million people engaged in
various service sectors such as public transport, healthcare,
catering, tourism and retail.
The third level is the largest and involves all of Beijing's
general residents. The 3 million students in primary and secondary
schools and universities as well as the 3.7 million people from
outside Beijing. These are the major targets for this level of
training.
Olympic Reader is an important step in general-purpose training
which is aimed at promoting Olympic awareness and etiquette among
the public, Jin said. BOCOG will team up with government
departments to work out related teaching plans based on the
books.
"In the next step we're going to foster a batch of teachers and
set up a number of training bases," Jin revealed, adding online
Olympic training programs will be available soon.
Apart from general-purpose training BOCOG is also responsible
for specialized vocational training, field training at sports
venues and education on the rules and regulations for 200-odd
different jobs at sports venues, Jin said.
For instance BOCOG has arranged 17 training sessions for nearly
1,000 people who'll take up a jobs with them and the committee has
carried out 200 specialized training programs since 2002. Nearly
100 BOCOG officials have been sent to different cities where
large-scale sporting events have been held such as Athens, Turin
and Melbourne.
Jin said more than 50 BOCOG officials have taken three-month
'off-the-job' English training sessions. Nearly 70 other BOCOG
officials have received free advanced English-Chinese translation
training from senior language experts from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. BOCOG itself has also launched 'on-the-job' English
training programs for its staff.
And around 2,000 National Technical Officials have received
training provided by BOCOG.
"From May 2007, the major training places will be moved to the
Olympic venues and the training will target various test events,"
Jin said.
(China Daily November 10, 2006)