Delay in printing of manuals affects training of volunteers

Exactly two months to go for the Commonwealth Games 2010 and there seem to be plenty of slip-ups in the run-up. According to senior organizing committee (OC) officials, the training schedule for volunteers the face of the Delhi Games for many is running late. The reason is a shortfall in the number of training manuals available.

Said a senior OC official, "The role-specific training was supposed to start by the beginning of July, once the general training of all 30,000 volunteers got over in June. However, the schedule was affected as there was a shortage of the required training material.'' As a result, the programme, which was to be wrapped up across all 34 functional areas as part of the role-specific training, had to be conducted in stages so that the manual could be made available. Added the official, "Not enough copies of the manual could be printed on time.'' Incidentally, the training manual has been designed by a consortium consiting of Amity and the Event Knowledge Services (EKS), which had been asked to train the volunteers. Amity had, in fact, sponsored the entire training programme.

Talking about the shortage in training manual, the official said that the programme got back on track after extra copies were printed. Sources admitted that delay in finalizing of the tender for the printing job by the OC had led to several such snafus. "However, the training programme is back on schedule now and the venue specific training will also be started soon,'' added the official. Role-specific training has now been started across all those FAs which missed out ealier due to manual shortage, he said.

Incidentally, the general training, which started in June, was also delayed. In Melbourne Games in 2006, for instance, training had taken place almost a year in advance. The programme involves training 30,000 people on not only how to help in conducting an international event but also, how to react in emergency situations.

The delay in starting the programme had been acknowledged as being a matter of concern by Amity's consortium partner, EKS at that time. EKS officials had said that the "timeline has been a challenge... but there are advantages to conducting the training near the event date, since their (volunteers) motivation levels are high.''