Training and education programme
A training programme was put into place for all of Lillehammer’s 9,935 volunteers and employees, who were collectively known as Team’94, to increase their awareness and skills.
The aim was not only to ensure the event ran smoothly, but also to bring the volunteers and employees closer together, so that they felt like an integral part of the event, and to equip the staff and volunteers with new skills that they could use in the future.
Fifty-two instructors, from the local school system, business community and sports clubs in Hedmark and Oppland, were recruited to lead the training. They covered several topics: Lillehammer’s ambitions in applying to host the Winter Games, service and cultural understanding, Olympism, knowledge about sports and the Olympic Winter Games, the Lillehammer region and the 1994 Games themselves.
Three classes of four hours were held in the evenings or at weekends. There was also some self-study and group work. This “participating learning” inspired the volunteers and the staff of the Olympic Organising Committee. About 60 per cent of them came from the local region, with the rest coming from around Norway.
Alongside and based on the training for Team’94, the organisers set up a programme entitled “Adult education with an Olympic menu”, aimed at local people and companies not directly involved with the Games. Using two professional educators, they covered similar topics as those in the Team’ 94 training, with the participation of 10,829 people from 34 companies, primarily in the Lillehammer region and Oslo.
There was also a language course, run by 42 teachers from high schools in Oppland, Hedmark and Oslo. Fifty English language courses were held (teaching 583 volunteers), 21 German language courses (291 volunteers) and 11 French language courses (132 volunteers), with 15,000 hours of tuition completed. An audio version of the language courses was also developed.
Schools benefitted through the “Olympic Games at home” programme, developed by the Lillehammer Olympic Organising Committee (LOOC), the Norwegian Athletic Association, broadcaster NRK, the Norwegian Olympic Committee and school authorities. The programme taught 750,000 students between the ages of six and 19 about the Olympic Movement, the Lillehammer Games and the LOOC’s environmental work. NRK also produced 10 educational television programmes in addition to the printed material sent to the schools.