Euro 2012 organisers to open volunteers training centre

Warsaw, April 20 (IANS) The organisers of the Euro 2012 football tournament will on Saturday inaugurate a training facility here for volunteers who will be working for the June 8-July 1 event jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

Besides the capital city of Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan, Gdansk are the other host cities in Poland while Kiev, Lvov, Kharkov and Donetsk will host matches in Ukraine.

Some 5,500 volunteers from all over the world will be engaged during the tournament and they wull start working from June 1.

But a smaller number of volunteers has already been employed in the four Polish cities, where the organsiers are carrying out work in war footing to create temporary structures for the tournament.

"Verification of almost 24,000 applications from 142 countries and qualifying interviews lasted until the end of December 2011. We have been signing contracts with selected volunteers since January, some groups started their training in February, but the workshops with UEFA representatives will officially commence in Warsaw and Wroclaw on Saturday and in Gdansk and Poznan on Sunday," Kamila Czerwinska, an official responsible for the training of volunteers, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Most volunteers are from African countries, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia. The employment period will depend on a volunteer's availability and function and will range from five to 40 days. The training programme is divided into two parts: general and specialist.

Some functions will require excellent stadium topography knowledge; others will call for "diplomatic" skills, as in the case of VIP welcome team.

Volunteers will work in areas of accreditation, legal, marketing, media, VIP and representation, match organisation, technical maintenance and information and access control points.

The voluntary service programme also includes integration, cultural and social events. The volunteers will be provided with meals, insurance, a set of UEFA EURO 2012 gadgets and a special certificate to confirm their involvement in the programme.