Volunteers who registered to help Qatar prepare for the FIFA World Cup 2022™ are already receiving bespoke skills training and experience in the lead-up to the tournament.

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) recently provided 400 volunteers for the AR Rahman concert, hosted at Khalifa International Stadium, and 350 for the 2019 CAF Super Cup final, which was recently hosted in Qatar for the first time.

Since launching the volunteering programme in September 2018, the SC has compiled a database of 60,000 Qatar-based volunteers that the Community Engagement team regularly reaches out to support various events.

More than 6,000 applications were received to volunteer at the AR Rahman concert and the SC collaborated with Qatar Volunteers Group (QVG), which has been active for eight years, to select the most suitable people for the occasion and manage them on the day.

The SC also collaborated with the Volunteer and Civic Engagement Centre at Qatar University to provide opportunities at the recent CAF Super Cup final between Espérance de Tunis and Raja Casablanca.

One volunteer, Faisal Akhtar, said: “I feel privileged to be selected as a volunteer for the concert and CAF final. It was a great experience to help me understand how much effort is required to make one event successful. It helped me to understand the importance of planning, team management and peer learning.

“One moment I can't forget is when an old man approached me and asked me to have a selfie. I am not a celebrity or VIP but at this moment I felt I made a difference and I had done something good and was part of something great.”

Another to volunteer her time at both events was Maha Mohamed. She added: “It was an honour to be part of the team, and even more so to be assigned as team leader. I learned so much in such a short space of time, and I am very grateful to the SC and Community Engagement team for providing us these unique opportunities. It means so much to me. The work comes from the heart.”

Mead Al Emadi, the SC's Community Engagement Manager, also added her own words of encouragement to the volunteers. She said: "Working as a volunteer now will give participants an advantage when applying for FIFA's Qatar 2022 volunteer programme, which will cover various aspects of the tournament, including match day management.”

She continued: “In the past few weeks we have hosted a major event in a World Cup venue and an exciting football match gathering fans from various countries. This has given volunteers incomparable experience, applicable when fans from across the world visit us in 2022.

“This is all part of our efforts to activate and engage with our volunteers. Utilising opportunities such as this – at one of our FIFA World Cup venues – will help us to plan and deliver our mega-event in 2022, including crowd management, way finding and audience services.”

Over the coming years volunteers will contribute towards numerous Qatar 2022 milestones, including stadium launches and test events. They will support a range of functions, including event management, hospitality, marketing, communications, audience management, security, medical services and more.

More than 265,000 people from across the world have so far registered to take part in the SC volunteering programme. Volunteers must be aged 16 and over and are not required to have any volunteering experience.

Find out more about the volunteer programme here.