National Skills Academy: Change through training
While consumer confidence rises and falls with the economy, there are some problems that pubs always have to face. Along with red tape and the view of successive Chancellors that alcohol duty is a bottomless piggy bank, recruitment and training remain a constant battle.
The view that working in a pub is a 'McJob' - lowly paid, temporary and leading nowhere - is still widely held. To combat this, a new initiative to promote the industry as a career and identify the best training available has been launched by the National Skills Academy for Hospitality.
Backed by People 1st, the Sector Skills Council for the trade, the academy was launched last year to work with employers to deliver "challenging and robust" training programmes.
In its first major activity, the academy is endorsing a series of training programmes which it believes give people the best opportunity to acquire the skills needed for a long-term career in the industry.
These include a new Advanced Apprenticeship being offered in partnership with Publican Award-winning bar and restaurant operator Living Ventures.
This will provide newcomers to the industry with the opportunity to develop the skills, product knowledge and financial acumen to run a successful pub or bar. Training will take place within Living Ventures' outlets, but will be open to all candidates - with the company receiving government funding to support the programme.
David McHattie, chief executive of the National Skills Academy, said: "Our fundamental role is to shine a light on excellence. If the best isn't available it should be created. We need to ensure a pipeline of talent. That's what we've worked with Living Ventures to achieve."
Living Ventures is receiving government funding to support the apprenticeship programme, and the academy hopes other pub operators will take up the challenge.
Other initiatives include a new Diploma in Professional Cookery, to be available at four catering colleges. McHattie believes this will help to restore the credibility of professional chef training.
"The NVQ, introduced 14 years ago, has never had the same credibility with employers as the old City & Guilds 706 qualification," he said. "This aims to redress that with a qualification which will give employers confidence."
McHattie believes persuading parents that a hospitality career is a credible choice for their offspring is a key battle.
"I originally started training as an accountant - my father, who had himself worked in the City and had then switched to a hospitality business, thought it was the wrong move, but supported me," he says.
"When I told him 18 months later that I was going to train as a pub manager he was delighted. But how many other kids get that kind of support?"
That career path took McHattie into roles with Mitchells & Butlers, Fuller's and the Restaurant Group before joining People 1st and then moving over to the academy last year.
In the spirit of enthusing both parents and teenagers, a successful Junior Chefs Academy for 14 to 16-year-old students, backed by contract caterer Compass, is also being endorsed by the academy. So far, 1,800 young people have been on the programme and 68 per cent have gone on to formal chef training.
The academy is launching the Compass Junior Chefs Academy in three new colleges with three programmes each - 144 places in total - and plans to approve more colleges to deliver this excellent programme.
"A career in hospitality is not for everybody," says McHattie, "but those who it is for need to be shown the way."
Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association and academy chairman, adds: "Between 750,000 and one million people are set to be recruited in the sector in the coming 12 months.
"The academy is creating national benchmarks in hospitality training so that these recruits and existing team members can take advantage of the best programmes in the industry."
