As of Oct 31st this year, 321,400 people had registered to become the Hangzhou Asian Games volunteers, and 220,000 had been enlisted, among whom 1,800 were non-Chinese applicants.

The global recruitment for the Games kicked off on May 22nd, 2021, and the final date for registration was Oct 31st, 2021. The Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC) aims to recruit some 52,000 Asian Games volunteers in total.

An official from the Volunteer Department of HAGOC said that the preliminary examination of volunteers for Hangzhou Asian Games and Asian Paralympic Games has been basically completed. The interviews are to be completed by the end of next March. The required qualifications are different for different positions.

An overview of volunteer recruitment

Volunteers are grouped according to their assignments and services, among which the three major groups are the General group, Professional group, and Organizing group.

The general group will conduct the general tasks such as ushering, inquiry, greeting, and assisting in cultural events and sports games.

The professional group will commit to the specific tasks that require professional skills. For example, the acoustic control during competitions and ceremonies, language services (including foreign languages, sign language, and reading Braille), protocol services, IT support and media operation, and delegation assisting.

The organizing group wants excellent organizing and managing volunteer teams who are also highly enthusiastic for the volunteer work.

The group working for the games will primarily serve on the opening and closing ceremonies and during the sports competitions and games-related activities.

Volunteers may work in any venue across Hangzhou and the co-host cities, namely, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Huzhou, and Shaoxing, all located in Zhejiang Province.

Volunteers are also needed in one or more of the following supportive works for the Games: competition operations, accreditation, protocol, language services, arrivals & departures, ceremonies and events, spectator services, media operations, games services, transport, official conference services, the Asian Games Village and official hotels or information technology.

Volunteers are expected to be in position from September to October 2022, some 7 days before and 3 days after the Games. Volunteers working in some peculiar parts may enjoy a flexible schedule. Those who will work outdoors will take turns on a rotating schedule.

Elections kick off

Volunteers who are good at communicating and coordinating, especially those who can communicate in two or more languages (communicative Mandarin is a must), are at a vantage point. After being enlisted, HAGOC will provide training programs and courses. It would be even better if they have a good command of one or more skills that are considered helpful to the Games.

On Dec 17th, Zhejiang University held a second-phase election for minority-language speakers.

Lou Jiao, deputy secretary of Youth League Committee from School of International Studies Zhejiang University, said the students who participated in the interview were very optimistic about the volunteer work and did well overall. Compared with the first selection round, this interview also invited teachers of minor languages to test the students' language ability, which made possible an objective and fair evaluation.

Fang Wanqi is a postgraduate student majoring in Russian. She once participated in the language service volunteer work of the 7th CISM Military World Games. She has accumulated experience in the previous sports event volunteer work, and she has successfully passed TPЯ4 and ТРЯ8.

Fang had learned a lot about the Asian Games in her preparation for the interview. "Since I major in Russian, I certainly hope to take part in language escort work, such as interpretation," she said.

Dong Rungaoyuan, a sophomore majoring in Japanese, felt a little nervous. He said that he made some mistakes in language expression during the interview, but gradually adjusted himself and finished the interview steadily.

"If I could be a volunteer of the Asian Games, I would like to participate in the work of interpretation or translation. In addition, I also want to pass on the spirit of the Hangzhou Asian Games to many other people." Dong added.

According to the announcement on volunteer recruitment, the priority will be given to those candidates who have previous volunteering experiences in sports events, and/or who will be available for the entire Hangzhou Asian Games, the Hangzhou Asian Para Games and pre-event tests, and/or who have the needed professional skills including but not limited to interpretation, translation, listening and speaking abilities in minor languages, and/or IT skills, and/or who have the skills that are considered helpful in the preparation and staging of the Games.

Some significant phases

By the end of January 2022, the volunteer interviews will be completed by an acceptance ratio of 1∶1.2 and will proceed to elect some volunteers for the pre-event positions. Next March, volunteers will take a psychological test and an English language application ability test. The personnel review, background examination, precise job assignment, and commitment letter signing will be completed. All volunteer recruitment will be completed in May 2022.

According to the plan, the development of general training and backbone volunteer training courses have been completed as of November. The precise selection of volunteer training teachers will be completed to guarantee the follow-up training. The general training for volunteers will be carried out from March to May 2022, and the on spot training for specific jobs will be completed by the end of August 2022.