How do you build an event-ready workforce and create a lasting legacy of human capability? Five lessons from Glasgow 2026
Glasgow 2026 had just 22 months to deliver the Commonwealth Games. That meant mobilising and preparing a workforce at pace. But the ambition went beyond delivering a successful Games. It was also about creating a lasting human legacy.
That's where أكاديمية played an important role.
Built into our Event Delivery Partner (EDP) model from the outset, the Academy developed tailored training and learning programmes to prepare the wider Glasgow 2026 workforce, build local capability, create career opportunities and share knowledge that could benefit future major events.
Emma Abson, Associate Director of Trivandi Academy, explains how we put this into practice.
Lessons at a glance:
- Give everyone the big picture early: Tailored onboarding builds a shared understanding across every function, from venue teams to back office.
- Invest in your leaders before delivery ramps up: Equip managers before teams scale and deadlines become immovable.
- Bake in local legacy from the start: Partner early with local organisations to turn short-term event roles into lasting career pathways.
- Learn by doing – and pass the knowledge on: Structured secondments give future event hosts first-hand delivery experience and help transfer expertise between events.
- Plan workforce development alongside delivery: Treat training and capability development as part of the operation from day one, not a separate add-on
1. Give everyone the big picture early:
Major events are operationally complex, full of acronyms and often siloed. For people new to the industry, understanding how everything fits together can be overwhelming. With hundreds of people working across different functions, we needed to give everyone a shared understanding of how the Games worked and how their role contributes to the overall delivery.
We developed 35 eLearning modules tailored to Glasgow and its operational requirements and rolled them out across the entire Games workforce.
95.6% said the training gave them a shared understanding of major events, while 80 people added a Level 5 Highfield Certification to their CV.
The lesson for other events: Tailor onboarding to the event rather than relying on generic content, and roll it out to the whole workforce so every function speaks the same language from day one.
2. Invest in your leaders before delivery ramps up
Leading a team through a major event comes with particular pressures, especially when workforces are growing quickly and deadlines are fixed.
Our leadership development workshops helped senior team members explore how they lead day to day and under pressure, and how their approach influences team performance. This is particularly valuable in a major event environment, where teams come together quickly and leaders need to establish trust, communicate clearly and make decisions under pressure.
The lesson for other events: Provide structured opportunities for your leaders to think about the way that they lead, so that they have the tools in place for when the workforce grows.
3. Bake local legacy in from the start
With 60% of our EDP workforce recruited locally in Scotland, creating opportunities for people to develop skills and experience beyond Glasgow was an important part of the plan.
Alongside accredited training, we worked with local education and employment partners to offer five paid placements for people facing barriers to employment.
Participants gained 28 days of practical Games experience in operational roles, access to Trivandi Academy’s certified training and outplacement support to help them take their next career step.
The lesson for other events: Legacy doesn’t happen by accident – partner with the right people, offer employment opportunities with accredited training and help short-term event roles become long-term career pathways.
4. Learn by doing – and pass the knowledge on
Some of the most valuable lessons in major events come from experiencing live delivery – working alongside experienced professionals, seeing how they solve problems and understanding the decisions they make.
Through our Experiential Learning Programme, 22 professionals from 14 organisations joined the EDP team on secondments lasting between two and nine weeks.
They worked in operational roles including Venue Management, Spectator Services, Accreditation and Protocol, with structured learning objectives and opportunities to take their experience and fresh perspectives back to their own organisations.
For teams preparing future major events, this offers something that classroom training alone can't provide - first-hand experience of what it takes to deliver.
100% of those who gave feedback said they gained knowledge they could not have learned in their normal role.
The lesson for other events: Build structured secondments with clear learning objectives into your delivery model, so knowledge moves from one event to another.
5. Plan workforce development alongside delivery, not after it:
One of the biggest lessons from Glasgow 2026 was integrating Trivandi Academy into our EDP model from the start. It meant we could plan workforce development from the outset alongside recruitment, mobilisation and operational delivery - rather than treating training as a separate activity.
Our Trivandi Academy programmes bring together people who have planned and delivered major events with specialist learning and development professionals. This allows us to identify knowledge and skills gaps and develop training and practical learning programmes tailored to each event's needs.
It's all part of Trivandi's wider commitment to continually improving major event delivery – building skilled, confident and capable people and a strong industry, ready for what comes next.
