Of the current 6,277 strong Olympic Park workforce one in five (20 per cent) are resident in the five Host Boroughs and over half live in London (53 per cent).

The ODA has also published annual figures for the British citizenship and nationality of the Olympic Park workforce which show that over three-quarters (76 per cent) are British citizens, compared to 70 per cent in October 2008, and 88 per cent are EU nationals.

The Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell joined ODA Chairman John Armitt to open a Community and Trade Union Learning Centre beside the Olympic Park which will offer free skills training and advice to site workers and the local community. 2,442 trainees have already passed through the National Skills Academy at the Plant Training Centre and Thames House Training centre in Newham set up to help local people access work on the Olympic Park and other construction sites.

ODA Chairman John Armitt said: 'The "big build" workforce is continuing to grow as we enter our toughest year. We are meeting our commitments to ensure employment and training opportunities for people living around the Olympic Park. The project remains on track and that is testament to the skill, professionalism and hard work of every single member of the workforce.

'The union learning centre by the Olympic Park site is another contribution towards the skills legacy that London 2012 is already creating in east London.'

The ODA’s ‘Job, Skills, Futures’ targets include delivering an Olympic Park construction workforce made up of at least 15 per cent of residents of the five Host Boroughs.

The latest Greater London Authority statistics showed that residents of the five Olympic Park host boroughs that were born outside of the UK range from between 22 per cent to 44 per cent.

The ODA works closely with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to ensure people working on site are legally entitled to do so. Since construction started UKBA representatives have been on site working in partnership with our security staff and contractors checking the documentation for workers before they start work on the Olympic Park.

The ‘Jobs, Skills, Futures’ strategy to boost the Olympic Park jobs and skills legacy includes:

• A jobs brokerage service, in partnership with Jobcentre Plus and the five Host Boroughs, that matches candidates living locally and elsewhere in the UK with Olympic Park job opportunities. Since May 2008, 750 jobs have been filled through the brokerage, which gives local people a 48 hours to access jobs before they are advertised more widely.   
• A National Skills Academy for Construction funded by ConstructionSkills, the Learning and Skills Council and the London Development Agency. This coordinates training across a range of providers, which now includes the Thames House Training Centre, in addition to a Plant Training centre for people to get the skills needed to win work on the Olympic Park and continue their career development once in work.
• A Community and Trade Union Learning Centre run by Unionlearn has opened by the Olympic Park site, off Pudding Mill Lane, for site workers and members of the local community. There are free courses in literacy, numeracy and computer skills and free lessons in how to write reports and job applications and one supporting employees with dyslexia. As well as a free internet cafe open to all,  the centre will host events with authors and sports personalities promoting learning. For more information visit: www.ctulearning.org.uk
•  A commitment to an additional 250 apprenticeships to be created on the Olympic Park and Olympic Village partly through the inclusion of a specific requirement to take on apprentices in future contracts. This clause sets a target of three per cent for apprentices in the future workforce of projects currently being procured. Currently 150 apprentices have been recruited onto the project.
• A target of 2,250 trainees, apprenticeships and work placements working on the Olympic Park and Village, including a programme aimed at specifically at placing women into construction jobs.

Notes to editors:

• To ensure transparency regarding the workforce, the ODA collect and publish figures on the Olympic Park workforce, collected through the enrolment process. The figures can be downloaded at: www.london2012.com/publications/employment-and-skills-update-january-2010.php
• Following the decision to publicly fund the Olympic Village development, the total number of people employed on the Village project is now included in the total figures.
• Workers included in the statistics are those who have spent at least five days working on the Olympic Park or Olympic Village over the period of measurement applied.
• The more detailed breakdowns of the contractor workforce apply solely to the Olympic Park workforce at this stage.
• Only Olympic Park workers that give a permanent address in one of the five host boroughs are counted as local. We are reliant on the accuracy of the information provided by workers at their point of enrolment.
• The ODA does not have a minimum period of residence in a host borough before a person is classed as resident there.  This convention is used by numerous other public authorities including Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Local Taxation and Valuation, amongst others, which deems a person to be a resident in an area from the day they move permanently to the specific address.
• The GLA 2006 Annual Population survey (published 2008) found that the percentages of five host borough residents born outside of the UK were: Newham 44 per cent; Tower Hamlets 39 per cent; Hackney residents 37 per cent; Waltham Forest; Greenwich 22 per cent.

Table showing the most represented nationalities of non-British citizens working on the Olympic Site (December 2009)

Nationality           Number          % of total workforce

Irish                         371                            6%
Romanian              201                            3%
Lithuanian             131                             2%
Nepalese              115                              2%
Indian                     115                             2%
Polish                      91                               1%
Australian               36                      Less than 1%
Bulgarian               32                       Less than 1%
Ghanaian               31                      Less than 1%
Nigerian                 29                      Less than 1%
Other                      349                              6%

• The figures for British citizens working on the Olympic Park represent workers that provide a British passport during the Olympic Park enrolment process. The nationality breakdowns are the nationalities given by non-British citizens.
• In December 2008 the ODA published Olympic Park workforce figures (for October 2008) based solely on nationality which showed that 63 per cent were British nationals and 8 per cent were Irish nationals. The equivalent nationality breakdown for the latest workforce figures (December 2009) is 68 per cent British and 8 per cent Irish.
• As the workforce has expanded, monitoring capability has developed and the figure is now available for British citizenship, measured by passport, a more objective and accurate measure of the diversity of the workforce.

– Ends –

For further information please contact the Olympic Delivery Authority Press Office on +44 (0)20 3 2012 700.

The construction of the venues and infrastructure of the London 2012 Games is funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency.

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