Opportunities Fund to allow disadvantaged Londoners to benefit from the Olympics

Funding worth £11m is to be given to employment and skills projects for the 2012 Olympics, including new grants for construction training.

Olympic site

The Opportunities Fund will provide money for projects that give young, disadvantaged Londoners a chance to benefit from the Olympics.

One such project is East Potential, which has been given £499,120 to fund construction training for more than 170 workers from East London. 70% of the workers will be from a black or ethnic minority background.

Another project, Careers Build Up, will support 200 black and ethnic minority construction graduates to move into junior and trainee management positions within SMEs, including training to NVQ level 3 standard.

Other projects include sports training, catering and hospitality training and new enterprise support for minorities and disadvantaged Londoners.

East Potential managing director David Chesterton said: “This is great news for hundreds of people who want to find work in the construction industry. East Potential will be supporting learners to help meet the real demand for skilled construction workers as a result of the 2012 Games.

Over 14,000 people and 1,500 businesses will benefit from the funding which runs from 2007 to 2010.