After recently blogging about our role in London 2012 and the Personal Best programme,  it was announced today that we’ve been awarded the Inspire Mark for Personal Best.

The London 2012 Inspire Programme recognises innovative projects that are inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Inspire Mark is awarded to projects that help inspire change – a key vision of the London 2012 Olympics.

The Personal Best programme uses the prospect of becoming a Games time volunteer in 2012 as the inspiration to attract unemployed and socially excluded people to complete a level 1 qualification, experience volunteering and move towards getting a job or onto further training.

More information about the programme can be found on our Personal Best pages.

In 1000 days on the London 2012 website

London 2012 have been celebrating the fact that there is now just 1000 days to go until the start of the 2012 Olympics. They’ve been asking on twitter and their website what people want to achieve in the next 1000 days.

For us, we’ve got a number of roles to play in staging the Olympics, and we’re involved in quite a few projects which have London 2012 as the catalyst.

The Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence is one, developed to help athletes succeed at the highest level. Originally developed with the intention of seeing athletes succeed at London 2012, we were obviously delighted to see nine AASE athletes compete in the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics , including double gold medalist Rebecca Adlington.

While it is great to help athletes in their quest for success over the next 1000 days, we also want the sector as a whole to be a success in line with our vision: More People, Better Skilled, Better Qualified. Some of the other projects we’re involved with will certainly help us in meeting that challenge.

With the news that more than five million people are currently participating in London 2012 Games-related projects, initiatives such as Personal Best certainly help get more people better skilled and better qualified.

Personal Best is the national pre-employment training programme, which uses the prospect of being a volunteer at London 2012 to engage workless and socially excluded people with education and help them gain skills, lift their aspirations and open up new life and career opportunities.

Recruit into Coaching is another project we’re involved in which will provide more people, better skilled and better qualified. We aid Sport England in delivering the Recruit into Coaching programme, which aims to recruit, train and deploy 10,000 new volunteers by 2011, greatly increasing our volunteer coaching workforce and directly increasing the sporting activity in both school and community settings.

Sport England have recently produced the following case study looking at the impact of the programme on participants and how these coaches can then go on to help others through sport.

So what do you want to achieve in 1000 days? Let us know through comments below and let London 2012 know through their website or by using the twitter hashtag #in1000days.

With over 5 million volunteers involved in our sector, and the requirement for 70,000 volunteers in the staging of the London 2012 Olympics, the Personal Best programme has a key role in developing the skills of our voluntary workforce.

Today the Guardian ran a piece, Fresh start to Olympic dreams, focussing on the opportunity for disadvantaged people to gain training and a chance to get involved in the 2012 games. As the Guardian points out, the scheme aims to tackle social exclusion, particularly by attempting to attract people from a black or minority ethnic background, those with a disability, lone parents, women returning to the workplace and individuals with health conditions.

This programme isn’t solely London focussed however, and SkillsActive are heavily involved in helping develop this programme, and its roll-out across the country.

The North East of England was the first region outside London to launch the programme back in March, with Jonathan Edwards CBE, Olympic triple jump gold medallist and world record holder, on hand to support the initiative as you can see below. 

Jonathan Edwards launches Personal Best in the North East

More videos from Personal Best in the North East can be found on the LSC North East Youtube.

The South East of England also offers the programme, and other regions will soon follow. You will be able to keep updated on the development of Personal Best through our website section at www.skillsactive.com/personalbest

If you are looking to get involved with Personal Best,  the best port of call for Londoners should be the Personal Best website while elsewhere you are advised to go through the local JobCentre Plus or by contacting one of the regional LSC leads, who are:

• South East: Suzanne.Aldridge@lsc.gov.uk
• North East: Eleanor.Porter@lsc.gov.uk

Today, as part of my day as an apprentice at SkillsActive, I went and saw the Olympic and Paralympic Heroes Parade which was an amazing, breathtaking experience. The atmosphere was ecstatic as everyone in Trafalgar Square was wating for the heroes of Beijing to appear, and as they appeared they were waving and smiling at the fans.  The support for  Team GB was fantastic, flags were being waved and chants were being shouted, with school kids chanting ’Rebecca Adlington’ and everyone cheering the atmosphere was incredible.

There was alot of media taking pictures and video’s of this event, and everyone else  was taking pictures of this amazing time too, I watched one lady jumping up and down and other people were climbing on bulidings to take pictures. Boris Johnson delivered a speech, and there were a lot of gifts given out for free such as oyster card holders, Great Britian flags and the best of all gifts was a Plastic Lottery Hand which was a big blue foam hand. There was loads of them, however I never had a chance to get one of them.  Oh well, maybe at London 2012 I can get one. I can’t wait until London 2012, and I bet others can’t either?

My work here in Beijing is now at an end, as the Paralympics prepares for the closing ceremony but for me it has started what could hopefully be a bright future.

I have only one regret about these games in Beijing and that is that they have finally ended but there is no time to waste on matters that can’t be changed. For me it is now time to fully focus on the future.

Having the opportunity to work here as a volunteer is one thing in my life I will never regret. I have so many happy memories and have seen some fascinating sports, world records, Olympic records as well as Paralympian being set and broken.

One thing I will say is that volunteers are a key factor to the Olympics running as well as they do so hopefully in London many more people will get the same or a similar opportunity as I have.

My final work shift was last night and I watched world records come and go, something a year ago I thought would never happen, it is amazing what life can throw at you.

Also my last interview was with South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius aka the “Blade runner” who for the final race of the evening smashed the World record in the men’s 400m. What a way to finish my Paralympic experience.

From here though I have one day to pack and prepare for my long journey back to England. Whilst I have been here I feel I have matured, grown as a person learnt many lessons and improved in my journalistic capacity.

Don’t get me wrong I have also had great fun, and since I have made so many Aussie friends you learn to be slightly more out going and you constantly have fun whether it be at work or on the social side of life.

I am honoured to have been at these games, it has been a dream come true, I hope to be at 2012 for London but you never know what is round the corner, all I can say is if your young enthusiastic and love sport- get yourself to the games. It truly can be life changing!

Finally I am happy after 3 months to be going home to be reunited with my family and friends. I have to also say how happy I was writing this blog for SkillsActive, I hope in some way I have helped some of you learn more about being an Olympic volunteer and tracing some of my thoughts and feelings on the subject.

Remember this if you only remember one thing:

“Volunteers represent the Olympic Spirit”

Jacques Rogge, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee

On this final note I will say goodbye and thankyou.