aifly Trains 1.5 million People for the Beijing Olympics
BEIJING, Aug. 23 /Xinhua-PPNewswire - AsiaNet/ --
Training over 1.5 million people to provide professional security, medical, hospitality, guidance, and other
services for the Olympic Games would be a daunting task for any organization but throw in the added
challenge of training them to provide all those services in 10 foreign languages? Many might have
considered that impossible when planning was underway for the Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program. aifly
Education Technology Company accepted this "mission impossible", and their success has earned
appreciation and accolades from volunteers, foreign guests, and the Olympic Committee.
"The Olympic Committee's decision to create the new sponsorship category of Official Language Training
and Testing Supplier in 2007, and invite aifly to fill this role was one of the most important decisions in
ensuring the success of the Beijing Olympics. The training and testing services that aifly provided to
Olympic volunteers over the years leading up to the Games were invaluable to our preparations,"
commented Wu Xiao Song, Beijing Olympic Committee Volunteer Department, Vice Director of Training.
Established in 2006, aifly Education Technology Company developed and delivered training services for
the Olympic Games long before a category in training was established in the Olympic Marketing Program.
At test events and service coordination events, aifly's team gained such swift recognition in delivering
effective training infused with passion that it was successfully named the Official Language Training and
Testing Supplier of the Beijing Olympic Games, being responsible for training all of the Olympic volunteers.
Said Nathaniel Jones, CEO of aifly, "Once we were asked to take on this role we determined that
considering the limited time, scale, and complexity of the training program that was needed, it would be
most effective to focus on training volunteers in language and skills that they would be most likely to
encounter and need to use effectively during the Olympic and Paralympic Games."
To this end, aifly created a library of print, audio, video and interactive content to support the traditional
one-on-one interaction, small group classes, intensive training camps, online learning programs through
meet the targeted needs of different volunteer groups.
"We use different training methods and focus on different content depending on the role and location that
each volunteer will be assigned during the Olympics. So for example, for medical aid volunteers we
emphasized role-playing and maintained small groups of between 4 and 10 students during training." Mr.
Jones said.
Wang Meigui is one of the volunteers who participated in aifly's training programs.
"Last May, I participated in the language training for college volunteers. I've learned many useful and
practical language skills especially for the Olympics. Like how to say "security check," how to help and even
turn people away in a polite way. And for many of our college students, including me, although we can read
and write in English, we fear talking with foreigners. I think the training really helped us open our mouths
and communicate with others in English."
Donald Glover, a professor from the United States said, "I've been to six Olympic Games, the Beijing
Olympics is much better than I expected, all the volunteers are very kind, they've given me a lot of help.
Most of them can speak English fluently. I did not expect their language skills to be so strong or to provide
such professional service."
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Susu Zhang
Tel: +86-10-82604033
Mob: +86-139-1093-7159
Fax: +86-10-82604022
Email: zhangwensu@gmail.com
SOURCE aifly Education Technology Company
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