Over 10,000 candidates apply to volunteer at 2015 FINA World Championships

The Kazan 2015 volunteer programme will be implemented on the federal level - 26 ministries, departments and higher education institutions from 20 regions of Russia and 11 higher education institutions of Tatarstan have joined the ranks of non-profit partners. Through collective efforts, the partners are to solve an important task, namely to recruit, to select and to train a 2,500-strong team of volunteers, 2,000 of which will be from Tatarstan and 500 will be represented by regional delegations. In addition, it should be noted that international volunteers will also have an opportunity to lend their hand during next year's international aquatics tournament in Kazan. Priority will be given to the most motivated candidates who speak both English and Russian, as well as have experience of volunteering at major sporting events or represent the OCs of upcoming competitions. 

The application process approaches the midpoint but first volunteer records have already been set. The youngest candidate who applied to volunteer is from Kazan and he's only 11 years old. And the oldest candidate to register for the volunteer programme has already marked her 76th birthday and also comes from the capital of Tatarstan. The average age of applicants is 21 years old. Records are also set not only by individuals but also by whole regions. For instance, the Samara Oblast became a front runner in terms of the number of candidates: 550 representatives want to take on volunteer duties during next summer's sporting event in Kazan. Other regions that ended up as runners-up are St. Petersburg (451), Moscow (340), Sverdlovsk (361) and Volgograd (317) Oblasts and Udmurt Republic (304). The Organising Committee received over 200 applications from international volunteers - representatives of 42 countries are willing to come to Russia to help make FINA 2015 happen. The largest number of applications was submitted by Kazakhstan, China, Spain, Italy, Belarus. 

The application process is only the first stage of volunteer recruitment campaign. Starting on November 20, 2014, interviews with candidates will kick off throughout the entire country - specially trained recruiters will conduct interviews with all comers, evaluate their level of motivation, expertise, skills and English language proficiency. The interviews will run until April 2015, following which volunteer managers will start building venue teams. Training of selected volunteers is the next stage of the recruitment campaign. The educational programme will feature the provision of general information on the FINA World Championships and volunteer programme, exercises aimed at developing personal volunteer skills, job specific training which will be hosted by functional area managers and venue training during which future volunteers will get to know their workplaces and key areas of the venue. Upon completion of the training programme, volunteers will go to the accreditation and uniform distribution centre where they will collect their uniform, SIM card with a special tariff plan and accreditation badge for access to FINA 2015 venues. After that the team of volunteers will be all set to take on their duties in July 2015. 

As we reported earlier, the volunteer applications will be available on the Kazan 2015 website until January 1, 2015. Those who are thinking of applying and working as volunteers at the upcoming international aquatics event, have two months left. The key selection criteria include a good command of English, communication skills, stress resistance, ability to work in a team, organisational skills, proactiveness and self-discipline.

Press Office of Organising Committee for 16th FINA World Championships