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This week saw the launch of the London 2012 Olympics volunteer recruitment website. Applications to be volunteers – or what the sports event in the UK capital calls Games Makers - are open until 27 October.

Although volunteers won’t be paid for their services, they will receive meal vouchers during their working shifts and it will be a great way to build up some work experience to add to a CV. London 2012 is looking to recruit up to 70,000 volunteers to help them manage what they say will be a complex operation.

To be eligible for the current crop of roles as a Games Maker at London 2012 you must be 18 or older on 1 January 2012 and have the legal right to be a volunteer in the UK. Next summer, London 2012 will start to recruit under-18s for their Young Games Maker Programme.

Volunteers are expected to be available for at least 10 working days and 3 days of training. The London 2012 website claims that applicants have around a 1 in 10 chance of being picked to be a volunteer.

Volunteers will be split across 31 teams and into 10 departments:

Commercial, Sales and Brand Protection
Competition Venues and Olympic Villages
Media, Editorial and Press Operations
Olympic and Paralympic Operations
Olympic and Paralympic Services
Protocol and International Relations
Sport, Medical and Anti-Doping
Technology
Torch Relays and Ceremonies
Transport

Some of the teams will need fewer than 50 volunteers and others will require thousands of Games Makers. All of the departments are looking for volunteers from diverse backgrounds and communities from all over the UK.

LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) will start to invite short-listed candidates for selection events in January next year and successful volunteers will be notified towards the end of 2011.

So, if you are a bit short on material for a killer CV then why not apply to be a Games Maker at London 2012 to gain some valuable work experience? Or, why not check out some of the opportunities that we currently have available on our Internship & Work Experience search page?