More than 700 students will be involved in the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games not as volunteers but as interns, working
for months before and during the event to help ensure its
success.
A cooperation memorandum was signed Friday between the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG)
and 16 Beijing-based universities and colleges. The schools will
groom the students to be interns.
Although the interns will work without pay, they are considered
different to volunteers, who will also provide services for the
Games.
Prestigious schools such as Peking University, Tsinghua
University, Renmin University of
China, Beijing Normal
University and Beijing Jiaotong University are included on the
list.
"The interns will work much longer than the Games' volunteers,
since they have to begin their work at BOCOG as early as one year
before the Games start, whereas most of the volunteers work only
during the 16 days of the Games," explained Zhang Zhiwei, vice
director of the BOCOG's Human Resources Department.
"They have to finish the required lessons of their universities
first and then learn more in their specialties to qualify to work
for the BOCOG."
BOCOG's Vice Executive President Li Binghua said the students
will be busy: "The interns are full-time students in their
universities but will take some special classes on Olympic
knowledge and certain professional lessons to meet the needs of
serving in the Olympics."
"At present, BOCOG has about 500 staff but as the Games
approach, we'll need more talented people. We need 706 interns
specializing in nine majors to work in 12 BOCOG departments for six
months to one year, depending on their posts, before and during the
Games," the vice president added.
The 706 interns will be made up of 446 postgraduates, 118
undergraduates and 142 higher vocational students. They will come
from such majors as foreign languages, media and communications,
logistics and legal affairs.
According to university officials, the undergraduates will be
students who have been enrolled this year while the postgraduates
will be those who enter next year.
According to Zhang Zhibin of Beijing Normal University's
Graduate School, 15 of its postgraduate journalism interns will be
involved in the program.
"We still have to discuss with BOCOG the specific classes they
will have to take," Zhang said.
(China Daily September 17, 2005)