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The Bristol Hoteliers Association (BHA) will launch a schools partnership programme next month aimed at encouraging young people to consider careers in the hospitality industry.
The initiative, part of the national Hospitality Connect scheme, will formally begin with an event at the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre on 2 October.
General managers and HR teams from nine hotels have trained as “Hospitality Connect Ambassadors” to work with local schools.
The programme pairs hotels with schools to give pupils experience of the workplace through activities such as site visits, careers education and curriculum-linked projects. The Careers Hub team at the West of England Combined Authority has been working with the BHA to identify schools for the partnerships, which will be announced at the launch.
Hospitality Connect was first developed in Manchester in 2021 by Adrian Ellis, then chair of the Manchester Hoteliers Association, during a period of acute recruitment difficulties in the sector. The pilot scheme linked 10 hotels with 10 schools and has since expanded into 18 regions, supported by the Savoy Educational Trust.
Adam Flint, chair of the BHA, said: “Recruitment continues to be a huge challenge for the hospitality sector in general, so creating these closer links with younger students will hopefully inspire them to consider career choices that had not occurred to them before.
“Then, drawing on the expertise and experience of BHA members, we hope to nurture the talent pipeline and inspire the next generation of enthusiastic and motivated hospitality teams.”
The BHA already works with the City of Bristol College’s hospitality faculty, which will provide guest speakers at the launch event.
Laura Johnson, hotels and schools liaison manager for Hospitality Connect, added: “The schools that will benefit from this initiative can look forward to their students being able to put their curriculum learning into context and have the opportunity to visit the hotels in groups to learn about the true breadth of occupations this industry can offer.”
