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Sixteen unemployed Londoners have been offered the chance of a career in the hospitality industry, due to an initiative funded by Solidarity AccorHotels, an endowment fund set up by the hotel group.
The fund aims to help fight economic and social exclusion of people at risk of poverty by improving their employability.
The participants have graduated from the “Hospitality Futures” programme, developed by AccorHotels and The Springboard Charity to provide the opportunity for people to develop a career in the sector.
For the first time, the programme accepted participants from a wider age range including more mature participants aged 40 and above as well as those from younger generations.
All participants went through a six-week course, which included four weeks of classroom training and practical sessions followed by two weeks of on-the-job experience.
Six candidates in the group have already been offered permanent roles at AccorHotels as a result of this year’s programme and two have secured work in alternative roles.
The graduation for the programme’s sixth annual intake took place at the Novotel London West.
Thomas Dubaere, chief operating officer Northern Europe at AccorHotels, said: “Now in its sixth year, Hospitality Futures is a unique programme with a proven track record of providing unemployed Londoners with a range of skills, training and experience to help them embark on a sustainable career with AccorHotels or in the wider hospitality industry.
“The hospitality industry needs to tap into as diverse a talent pool as possible to ensure skillsets required by the sector are not lost. The Hospitality Futures programme is a fantastic example of this, and we’ve seen positive effects on a group of people that might have otherwise been overlooked, often due to factors outside of their control.”
The Springboard Charity supports each candidate with an after-care service which includes mentoring for a minimum of six months. This is coupled with professional mentoring from carefully trained Ambassador Mentors during and after candidate work placements.
