ABSTRACT
Staging the Olympic Games represents a great strain on the resources of host cities and nations: London 2012 for example has a budget of GBP 8.921 billion, and a further estimated GBP 1 billion in public funds was diverted to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for parts of the project (Gibson, 2012). Particularly in times of austerity, it is evident that the delivery of economic and social benefits for the host population, in its widest sense, is a matter of particular public scrutiny. Employment and skills development opportunities have the potential to bring both social and economic benefits, and are often used as justifications for the event-related expenditure at the bidding stage.
