Adecco has launched an initiative to help Britain’s paralympic athletes to make the transition from a career in sport to the workplace following their retirement from sport.

The Athlete Career Programme (ACP), which Adecco has been running for the International Olympic Committee since 2005, will now be opened to all competing and retired Paralympians.

Steve Girdler, director of London 2012, Adecco Group UK & Ireland, says that in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), Adecco “will work with athletes to discover their individual attributes and provide the advice and tools to make the talent they have applicable to the workplace”.

Alongside the ACP, Adecco has launched its Disability Talent Pool (DTP), a register of talented disabled candidates who are interested in working at London 2012. The DTP will fast track disabled candidates who narrowly missed out on a job first time round to future roles with London 2012.

Since signing as the official recruitment services provider of London 2012 on 1 May last year, Adecco has placed around 100 disabled people in positions. Adecco will also help with outplacement services once the Games has finished.

“We are the first country to look at the passion and determination of paralympians for talent for the workplace by working with LOCOG in this way,” Girdler says.

Ambassador for ACP Danny Crates, former 400m T46 arm amputee, 2004 Paralympic Champion, European Champion and world record holder, told the launch audience in London that no one had prepared him for the sense of loss following his retirement last July.

“I didn’t have the ACP when I retired but it is so, so important for athletes. Athletes are driven and motivated individuals, which are excellent attributes for any employer, either during their career or afterwards.”