Abstract

The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games brought the world's cosmopolitan sporting communities and the global media eye to Sydney, one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. The cultural diversity of Sydney's people was one of the 'selling points' that won Sydney the games from Beijing. But how did the Games organising committee (SOCOG) respond to the challenge of organising an event for athletes, spectators, media and officials who came from many different language, religious and cultural groups? In this paper we present the findings from research into the educational response to the cultural diversity aspects of the Games itself. In particular we monitored and assessed the response of the NSW Department of Education and Training to the vocational education and training challenges of the Games. A key part of this research was Customer Relations 2000, the main course on vocational education and training provided by DET for Games Volunteers and other Games staff but subsequently marketed to a broader audience.

This paper presents the major findings of this piece of co-operative research between UTS and the NSW Department of Education and Training as well as canvassing other aspects of the ways in which the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games responded to cultural diversity.

Bionotes

Jock Collins is an Associate Professor of Economics at UTS, where he has taught for 21 years. He is the author of Migrant Hands in a Distant Land: Australia's Post-war Immigration and co-author of A Shop Full of Dreams: Ethnic Small Business in Australia, Cosmopolitan Sydney: Explore the world in one city and Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: Youth Ethnicity and Crime. Pluto Press, Sydney, publishes all three books. Jock Collins has been writing on issues related to Australian immigration, multiculturalism and racism and the Australian Labor market since 1973. He has been a visiting fellow at universities in the UK, Canada and the USA. Jock Collins regularly comments on immigration and multiculturalism issues in the media.

Tim Childs manages a research project 'Ethnic Diversity and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games,' a broad range investigation into the ethnic diversity aspects of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Tim comes from an extensive working background in the community sector, and most recently managed a large Community Legal Centre in an ethnically diverse region of Sydney. Tim is also an ex student of UTS, having completed a bachelor of social science in 1999.

Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

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Country
Australia