Edinburgh Napier University

  The rising cost of staging the Olympic Games has resulted in closer scrutiny on their potential economic impacts. Employment and skills development are often used at the bidding stage to – at least partly – justify the cost of the Games. This article examines the development and early implementation of employment and skills strategies in the run-up to London 2012, ‘the most inclusive Games ever’. It analyses the efforts made to make the recruitment process for training and jobs more focused on a local, diverse and inclusive labour pool. On the basis of in-depth interviews with key decision makers, it is found that the different organisations involved showed dedication to inclusive labour, but that they operated different definitions of ‘inclusivity’, resulting in some key successes and a few missed opportunities.