You can fly high in the hospitality sector and soar from front-line worker to top boss
This sector is worth about £100million a year and many companies are gearing up to show how quickly you can progress in this field
IT is worth around £100million a year but the hospitality sector is struggling to serve up the right staff.
While we are doing our bit by taking more holidays in the UK and regularly eating out, worried employers say they are facing a skills crisis as not enough people are applying for available jobs.
Unsocial hours and fears over limited career progression have put applicants off — but the industry is fighting back.
On Monday, its top employers launch a new event to promote thousands of fast-track career options they have to offer.
Companies including D&D restaurants, Park Plaza Hotels and The O2 are coming together for the My Hospitality World Hospitality Week to show how quickly you can go from a front-line role to top boss.
The project is being fronted by maitre d’ Fred Sirieix, from Channel 4’s First Dates, and features training experts the Career Colleges Trust, the Institute of Hospitality and London South East Colleges.
Fred said: “Come join the world of hospitality, explore new horizons and a career that will give you the skills and knowledge to enable you to work around the world.” Free activities on offer include kitchen tours, presentations, champagne tastings and the chance to meet top chefs.
Director of London South East Colleges’ Hospitality, Food and Enterprise Career College, Gary Farrelly, said: “Perception of the hospitality industry is often that of low pay and long hours but we are keen to change this outdated image.
“The reality is that hospitality offers many dynamic, exciting and rewarding careers — and we want to attract lots more talented young people into the sector.”
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WANT a smashing job? Gadget repairers iSMASH have 15 vacancies at ismash. com/blogs/ismash-careers.
Success story
JOANNE ALDER started waitressing while still at school – she is now a general manager for the upmarket Park Plaza Hotels.
The chain has also supported Joanne to study for a Master Innholders award at Cranfield School of Management in Bedford.
Joanne, 36, from Crystal Palace, South London, says: “I never imagined as a waitress that I would one day be a general manager of a hotel in Baker Street in London.
“The hospitality industry is not like any other. If you’re motivated, passionate, ambitious and willing to work hard, you can carve out an amazing career.
“There are so many opportunities and routes of progression. And you can travel in this industry. It can take you anywhere.”
The PPHE Hotel Group has 80 UK full and part-time vacancies including chefs, team leaders and apprenticeships.
Jaklien Van Sterkenburg, head of the group’s HR, said: “We are looking for talented people, from those who are at the beginning of their career to those with management and leadership experience.
“We look for people with the right attitude – a genuine passion to ensure the guest is at the heart of everything we do.”
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Work Opportunities
- PUT your foot on the pedal to fast-track your motoring career.
Applications are open for the annual Autocar Courland Next Generation Award.
The scheme offers the winner an £8,000 cash prize and a five-month work experience programme shared between Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren Automotive, Nissan, Horiba Mira and Toyota.
Entrants must be aged between 17 and 25. To take part, visit and submit an idea on how to improve motoring in one of five categories – mobility, connectivity, sustainability, customer experience, and marketing and communication. Apply by 5pm on August 31.
Autocar editor-in-chief and head judge Steve Cropley said: “We need exciting new talent.” - LANDING work should be easier with research showing that competition for jobs has fallen to a five-year low.
Doug Monro, boss of Adzuna which carried out the study, said: “Fortunes for jobseekers around the UK have never looked so sunny.
“Monthly vacancy growth and a good, long-term trend in salary growth compound the good news for those seeking new employment opportunities.”
There are currently 1,141,733 advertised vacancies in the UK. - WHEN it comes to small businesses, Brighton rocks. The seaside city is the UK’s most entrepreneurial with 64 per cent of workers there hoping to start their own business. But it is not down to the bracing sea air. Southampton, a major port, has the fewest who want to be their own boss – 18 per cent – the study from Informi shows.
- WANT to love your job? AS Watson, the parent company of Love Island sponsors Superdrug, is seeking 200 tech staff to work in its digital business eLab.
There are 150 European jobs to fill based in London and Milan plus a further 50 opportunities in Asia.
Roles available include coders and analysts to deliver content and digital marketing and manage the tech of the firm’s online businesses.
Apply now at
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DELIVERY firm ArrowXL is looking for experienced 7.5 tonne drivers throughout the UK. To apply, email careers@arrowxl.co.uk.
Bored room meeting?
BEING stuck in a pointless meeting is one of life’s great frustrations. We asked Michael Brown, author of My Job Isn’t Working!, for his top tips on managing meetings.
- Always ask for an agenda. If the reply is there won’t be one, decline the meeting on the grounds that you can’t assess whether your presence is relevant.
- Put timings on the agenda for each item, and appoint a timekeeper to call it halfway through each item. Then add a firm objective such as “Decision required on how to find £10k cost saving”. It’s surprising how it focuses minds.
- Have someone capture the agreed actions as you go through the meeting. They simply fill in a spreadsheet with four column headings: Item/action/by who/by when. This forces the group to be clear about who is doing what.
The next meeting starts with a review of the agreed actions. When people realise they are going to be asked to report back, they tend to get more done. - Start meetings with a check-in from everyone in the meeting, so everyone gets to participate.
- Finish all meetings with a discussion of what went well and how the meeting can be improved next time.
- My Job Isn’t Working (Practical Inspiration Publishing), £14.99