engineering, has launched a project to ensure that a skilled

workforce is in place should the UK host the Olympic and

Paralympic Games.

The Olympic Skills project will see SummitSkills planning to

work with partner Sector Skills Councils, local authorities,

developers and employers across the city to develop training

programmes and apprenticeship schemes to produce the

necessary building services engineers that are needed to create

the Olympic Village and other structures for the event.

“With every element of the Olympic infrastructure needing

the core building services - electricity, plumbing, heating,

ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration – having the right

number of skilled people in these areas is going to be vital in

getting the city prepared for 2012,” said Blane Judd, Operations

Director of SummitSkills. “The planning has to start now to

develop the skills in the local community so that the skills are

available to resource the huge workforce requirement.

“The resource planning undertaken at this stage will be

beneficial to the Thames Gateway project, which will also need

a considerable amount of building services engineers.”

The London Olympic Games would generate demand for

7,000 full-time equivalent construction related workers, for the

estimated 9,000 new homes and over 100,000 sq metres of

stadia. The massive increase in local employment opportunity

has, when taken with other major developments in the Thames

Gateway, enormous potential to transform East London’s

current employment levels.

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