Patrick Dempsey, managing director of Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants on inspiring young people to enter the hospitality sector:
As a member of the Business in the Community (BITC) Talent and Skills Leadership Team, chaired by Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, I’m very proud to be supporting one of the big campaigns that we are spearheading called Work Inspiration.
This is a nationwide drive by UK industry to secure 200,000 work placements in 2013, inspiring young people to enter work, in any sector from hospitality to construction, creative media to pharmaceuticals. A major part of the work we’re doing is to encourage different industries to hold their very own, ‘Big Conversation’.
Within hospitality we’ve made a start. Along with over 65 industry peers and colleagues including Anne Pierce, chief executive of Springboard; Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association and Heiko Figge, managing director of Thistle Hotels we’re beginning ‘The Big Conversation in Hospitality’ on 11 July.
We’ll be joined by young people who have been on work experience or an apprenticeship or who are currently unemployed. Together we’re going to talk about the importance of work experience, apprenticeships and combating youth unemployment. We’ve laid out three key objectives:
1. How can we attract more people into hospitality through structured work placements, using Springboard’s ‘Inspire’ accreditation programme, so we can make sure these work placements, whether they are for one week or one year, are properly facilitated and supported?
2. How can we attract and employ the long-term youth unemployed and NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training)?
3.How can we make sure that when people do join our sector, we can then help them gain the literacy, numeracy and work skills they need through Functional English and Maths Skills programmes, as well as different Hospitality sector technical skills that are achieved as part of an Intermediate or Advanced Apprenticeship framework?
Within Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants, we’ve set ourselves some ambitious targets. We want 50% of all new jobs to go to the long term youth unemployed and we want to deliver 500 apprenticeships a year and we’re targeting 500 work placements over the next five years.
My lightbulb moment, when it really struck home to me just what a difference we can make, came from a small but very valuable conversation. It happened when I attended the Business in the Community Big Conversation at the World Skills event in October last year attended by around 200 chief executives and managing directors from different industries.
We had just opened our Stratford Premier Inn near the Olympic Park and I was sitting next to a young man called Shariar, just 19 years old and from Tower Hamlets. I asked him why he was there. He told me that he’d never had a job in his life but wanted to work. I said to him that when the meeting was over I’d see if I could get him a job at our new hotel.
The next day Shariar and a couple of friends went to see Premier Inn’s chief operating officer, John Forrest, and we recruited them on the spot. Nine months on and Shariar and his friends are still working for us and doing a fantastic job in front of house roles.
Indeed, Shariar was part of the team that that won ‘New Hotel Opening of the Year’ at our brand conference in May and I was incredibly proud and delighted to invite him, along with his team, up on stage to collect their Award.
It’s just one story amongst many, but to Shariar it was a conversation that completely transformed his life. He’s now bringing in a much-needed wage to a family where he’s the only breadwinner. His self confidence has been given a real boost and he can see a future ahead of him. And, not forgetting, the brilliant job he is doing, helping to deliver the Premier Inn brand promise to thousands of our customers. It’s a win win from every angle.
Our task, as the Hospitality sector, is to help create more stories like Shariar’s.
Jobs for the long-term unemployed
When it comes to job creation, Premier Inn is the fastest growing hotel company in the UK. We intend to open around 30 new Premier Inn hotels this year, that’s over 4,000 rooms, and around eight new restaurants. This will create around 2,500 jobs and we want at least half of them to come from the long term unemployed and NEETs.
We’re well on track to achieve our target. At our most recent openings in Stratford, Old Street and Stansted we recruited 55, 38 and 19 people respectively, from either Job Centre Plus or from charities working to get the long term unemployed back to work.
Apprenticeships
Whitbread’s vision is to grow legendary brands with a strong customer heartbeat. Key to this is building teams that are engaged, supported and inspired to deliver outstanding service and products to our 20 million customers a month. We’re dedicated to create a learning culture that builds the talent within our business and helps people to progress their own working lives and careers.
Back in 2009 we introduced our own embedded apprenticeship model, whereby we deliver bespoke programmes internally rather than using an external provider. All team members are entitled to apply for these programmes and we currently have over 800 people on an apprenticeship programme. In the past three years we’ve helped deliver great results for our team members with over 4,000 qualifications issued since launch.
Three years on from when we started, the pipeline of Apprentices is now starting to come through. Almost a third of the junior level managers on our internal management programme, ‘Shooting Stars’, have previously achieved an apprenticeship. We’re always looking at ways to offer more opportunities to team members, we recently launched an advanced apprenticeships scheme and we’re working on a higher apprenticeship to roll out later this year.
Work placements
We’re currently developing 10 day, fully structured work placements aimed at NEETs and running a pilot scheme of 50 places in the Midlands. We’ve deliberately designed the placements so that entrants can benefit from a wide variety of work experiences whilst still being able to claim Job Seekers Allowance.
Upon completing their work placement, every entrant is giving a reference and feedback form from the site manager to help with future job applications. To give them the very best chance of finding work within Whitbread, work placements are targeted at sites where job vacancies may be available so we can offer promising candidates a permanent role.
And we’re not just focussing on NEETs. Over the next few years we will connect to 1.2 million school children, aged 15 – 16 years, and share with them what it is like to work in hospitality today. We will offer inspirational two-week work experience placements to engage, connect and educate young people about the wonderful possibilities of starting a great career in hospitality, sharing with them fantastic stories of progression from team member to management roles in a growing sector.
I’m exceptionally proud to be hosting the hospitality sector’s very first ‘Big Conversation’. I passionately believe that by working together we can make a real difference to the lives of young people in this country and be a force for good.
