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The Channel 4 TV star and general manager at Galvin at Windows, Fred Sirieix, has backed a national campaign to encourage young people into pursuing a career in hospitality.
Sirieix has fronted a video in support of My Hospitality Life – a UK wide initiative launched by the Edge Hotel School in Essex attempting to persuade young people to join the hospitality industry.
The launch of the initiative comes after despite being the UK’s fourth largest industry and employing almost 4.5m people, recent research has found that just 22% of 16-21 year-olds in the UK would consider hospitality as a career. Meanwhile, almost a quarter of young people (26%) admit they don’t see hospitality as an industry to work in after obtaining a degree.
Principal of the Edge Hotel School Andrew Boer, said: “If you consider that there is considerable concern on behalf of many members of the hospitality industry about the impact Brexit may have on its workforce you can see how we might have a problem.
“The reality is, we currently don’t have enough home-grown talent to fill the positions that are likely to become available and it’s also not helped by the fact that many educational institutions are shutting their training restaurants or have subsumed their specialist hospitality courses under the broader heading of ‘business studies’.
“That’s why, here at the Edge Hotel School, we decided to create the ‘Inspiring Hospitality Careers’ project to encourage more young people to think about hospitality as a career of choice and explore the many different opportunities that the industry has to offer.”
As part of ‘My Hospitality Life’, representatives from the Edge Hotel School will visit schools and colleges throughout the UK to promote the hospitality industry and highlight the opportunities available, with the aim of reaching 5,000 pupils by the end of 2018.
My Hospitality Life has been launched in partnership with The Edge Foundation and The Springboard Charity, which helps disadvantaged and underprivileged young people find work within hospitality, leisure and tourism.
View the campaign video featuring Fred Sirieix below:
