Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Leeds Beckett joins The Big Hospitality Conversation
The event, which will be held on Monday 26 September at the Queens Hotel, is part of a nationwide campaign organised by the British Hospitality Association (BHA), and brought to the city by the Leeds Hotel and Venues Association, supported by LeedsBID (Leeds Business Improvement District).
The one-day programme will see over 100 hospitality business leaders, restauranteurs, hoteliers and caterers from across the region come together to pledge jobs, apprenticeships and work placements to students and jobseekers who are thinking about the next steps they need to take in order to start a career in the hospitality industry.
As the UK’s fourth largest industry, the hospitality sector accounts for over 14 percent of the UK workforce and 17 percent of total UK jobs growth. One-third of staff employed in hospitality are under 25, and most of those who end up in a management role do so before they are 30. However, the hospitality sector has a skills shortage, particularly for managers and chefs and needs to recruit an additional 100,000 skilled workers by 2020 in order to keep up with predicted growth.
Sarah Derbyshire-Thomas, Widening Participation Projects Manager at Leeds Beckett, commented: “The Access and Widening Participation team at our University is delighted to be a partner in promoting the inaugural ‘Big Conversation’ event in Leeds.
“The event will provide a great opportunity for young people to see how wide-ranging the opportunities for a career in hospitality are. We have invited our partner schools and colleges to attend, so that their students can network with representatives from the hospitality and tourism industry and discover that hospitality is longer regarded as the sector that provides part-time jobs for young people at college or university, it provides careers for life, and rewarding ones at that.
“Our University will be on hand to showcase the diverse number of courses we offer, including Hospitality Leadership & Management and Hospitality Business Management.”
With over 150 young people signed up to attend the event, they will have the chance to chat to representatives from local businesses e.g. the Jones Bar Group who brought the incredibly popular Roxy Ball Room to the City and well-known brands including YO! Sushi and Costa Coffee.
Gordon Jackson, Chair of Leeds Hotels & Venues Association and GM of Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa said: “Hospitality is a great option for a career, but I wonder how many people are aware of how wide the opportunities are. Yes, we employ talented people, traditionally associated with the hospitality industry, chefs, food and drink service staff, housekeeping and front of house teams, but the industry offers so many opportunities in other areas, including financial management, IT, HR, sales and marketing, graphic design, spa, fitness and maintenance.
“We have many opportunities for skilled people and can guarantee real jobs at the end of the education process. I’m not sure other careers can guarantee jobs with such confidence.”
Andrew Cooper, Chief Executive of the Leeds BID added: “One of our main business objectives is to focus on the employment opportunities in Leeds, particularly youth unemployment which in Leeds is just short of 19% of all 16-24 year olds. Hospitality can offer people a varied, exciting career path but I don’t think as a city we do enough to draw attention about the opportunities within this sector. The Big Hospitality Conversation will outline these opportunities and put people in front of those businesses that have real openings for employment.”
The Big Hospitality Conversation is run in partnership with Springboard, National Apprenticeship Service and the Department for Work and Pensions. It offers a commitment to creating job opportunities for 16-24 year olds. Over 67,000 job opportunities have so far been created at events like the one in Leeds, exceeding the original target of the campaign to create up to 60,000 jobs for young people by 2016.
The event will run from 12pm to 5pm. For more information and to register visit http://bit.ly/BHCJobSeekers or e-mail gabriella@bha.org.uk.