Two of the largest employers of local residents on the Park are Cofely GDF Suez, who operate the ArcelorMittal Orbit, and The Landscape Group which looks after the maintenance and development of the Park’s many acres of meadows, planting and waterways. We spoke to two of the Park’s workforce, Uzma Débar and Dean Bennett, who work for the ArcelorMittal Orbit and The Landscape Group respectively, about their experiences. As born and bred east Londoners, both have a personal as well as professional connection to the Park.

Name: Uzma Débar

Role: Visitor Experience Supervisor at the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

Uzma supervises the team who are responsible for greeting guests, taking their tickets, escorting them to the observation decks in the lifts, and teaching visitors about the sculpture and the view through fun facts and interesting anecdotes.

Standing 80 metres off the ground, it isn’t hard to see the area of east London which Uzma grew up in and still lives to this day. Uzma has worked at the ArcelorMittal Orbit since the London 2012 Games where she worked as a visitor experience host, providing invaluable information to the thousands of visitors who flocked through the Park gates and to the top of the UK’s tallest sculpture. After being asked to return for the ‘Park in Progress’ tours early last year, Uzma was offered a permanent role as Visitor Experience Supervisor in March 2014. Today, she can more often be found helping to recruit and train new starters and successfully delivering new projects including the Orbit’s summer programme of childrens’ activities. 

Having completed her A-levels in August of last year, Uzma is currently on her gap year ahead and gaining valuable experience ahead of her starting a degree in Audiology at De Montfort University in Leicester. 

Uzma says that her favourite part of working at this iconic attraction is the opportunity to speak to people from all walks of life. Despite having lived in east London all her life, she says she actually knew very little of the history and stories of the area. That’s all changed now she says. “So many of the people who come to the Orbit are so knowledgeable about east London – I’ve been able to share that information with other visitors”. 

Uzma also talks passionately about the many ways in which Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park itself has transformed over the past two years, since those incredible four weeks during the summer of 2012. She recalls looking down from the ArcelorMittal Orbit and seeing black markings throughout the Park which seemed to have little purpose. It wasn’t until much later that these black markings turned out to be place markers for the Park’s bus stops. 

“I’m excited to see how the Park will continue transforming over the years to come. I love that people come with their memories from the London 2012 Games but are just as interested in seeing how the Park will change and grow”.

Name: Dean Bennett

Role: Waterways Team Leader, The Landscape Group

Dean was on the marine waterways security team before the Games and was subsequently offered a role at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He spends his time on the river where his team maintain the waterways.

Dean describes travelling up and down the 6km of waterways in a boat as “the best office anyone could have”. Dean and his eight-man team go out on the Park’s waterways in all conditions – no matter how bad the weather, they’ll be working. 

Dean is a born and bred east Londoner and as a kid he remembers playing on the banks of the waterways that now make up the north of the Park. Back then the area was nothing more than a wasteland with much of the canal being filled with shopping trolleys and industrial barriers. “It’s incredible to see how much the area has changed. You walk around the Park now and there are clean waterways, beautiful gardens. It’s something we can all be really proud of”.

Beyond having the chance to work outside, Dean’s favourite aspect of the job is working in such a tight-knit team. “We all look out for each other”, he says. “If there’s a job to do which isn’t much fun then we’ll all muck in and support each other”. It’s the same for the Park as a whole: “You’ve got the various people working for The Landscape Group – the horticulture team, the waterways crew – who are all really close. Then you’ve got the people in the venues and attractions who are also working to make this part of London really special. It’s a real community we’ve got down here”.

There are opportunities available with The Landscape Group in many roles of varying abilities including apprenticeships. Similarly, the ArcelorMittal Orbit recruits heavily from the surrounding boroughs of the Park. For more information, head to http://www.thelandscapegroup.co.uk/, http://arcelormittalorbit.com/ or keep an eye on the employment page of this website.