Applications opened this week to coincide with Volunteers’ Week, with the aim of providing a community of passionate people with the chance to play a vital role in delivering the Games in just over a year’s time.
The volunteers – known as the 'Commonwealth Collective' – will be a dedicated and dynamic group that will reflect the diversity of the West Midlands as well as the modern Commonwealth.
The volunteers that join the Commonwealth Collective will be the public faces of Birmingham 2022 and represent the heart and soul of the Games experience for athletes, officials, spectators and a global audience of over one billion. The Games is the largest sporting and cultural event ever to be held in the West Midlands and the biggest in the UK for a decade.
The majority of volunteer roles don’t need any formal experience or qualifications, with full training provided. Roles include drivers, first aiders, meet and greeters, venue preppers, kit carriers, courtside assistants, and everything in between to help the Games run smoothly and create a unique experience right across the region.
The 13,000 volunteers who form the Commonwealth Collective will receive approximately 250,000 hours of training and complete one million hours of volunteer time.
Applicants must be aged 18 by 1 January 2022 and can select preferred areas of interest which include Event Services, Accreditation, Transport, Sport and Media. A young volunteer programme for 14-17 year olds will begin recruitment in the autumn.
25,000 shortlisted applicants will be invited to an interview at the Volunteer Selection Centre between September and December 2021, which will be held at the iconic Library of Birmingham. Successful volunteers will be notified with a role offer from January 2022.
To mark the launch of volunteering applications, Birmingham 2022 enlisted the help of three elite athletes to volunteer at West Midlands community organisations and sport clubs to encourage applications.
