They can deliver excellent customer service, ensure repeat and word-of-mouth business, and increase business profit and productivity. We need to invest in these people and equip them with the right skills and experience.
We work closely with People 1st, the Sector Skills Council for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industries, to improve skills and productivity levels within these industries through the National Skills Strategy.
People 1st represent employers and work with Government and the education sector to provide a skilled, motivated, and productive workforce now and in the future. They exist to ensure that employers’ needs are prioritised and future expenditure is directed to these needs.
top
National Skills Strategy | UK Skills Passport | Good Employer Campaign | Skills Summits | Skills Needs Assessment | | National Hospitality Skills Academy
National Skills Strategy
On 7 March 2007, former Tourism Minister Shaun Woodward and People1st launched Raising the Bar: the National Skills Strategy for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector in England.
The National Skills Strategy contains a 10-point plan focusing on management and leadership, chefs and customer service. It also aims to improve staff retention rates by supporting and developing employees and making them aware of career development opportunities.
The strategy is the result of extensive consultation since 2005 with employers about their skill needs (see skills needs assessment) and a complete review of the learning supply.
At the launch, the Minister emphasised that this is not a Government strategy, but an industry strategy which Government and other partners will sign up to. He also called it the best opportunity the sector has ever had to make a step change in skill levels and attitudes towards training.
The National Skills Strategy is vital to ensuring that we raise standards to world class in time for the 2012 Games and is part of our ongoing work on the Tourism Strategy for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
In November 2007, a separate Action Plan was produced outlining specific actions and commitments that have been agreed with employers and partners, as well as the proposed targets.
- National Skills Strategy Action Plan
This Action Plan was prepared for the first meeting of the National Skills Strategy Monitoring and Implementation Group – a public and private sector group which has been established to oversee implementation of the strategy and identify any barriers to progress. Further details will be published here in early 2008.
top
UK Skills Passport
The UK Skills Passport (UKSP) is the first point of the 10-point plan. It is a comprehensive online system of career development and training, guiding industry to the qualifications and funding that best meet their needs. In addition, it records electronically an individual’s training (formal and informal), qualifications and achievements.
UKSP has a wealth of benefits for employers and individuals. It helps develop a culture of training and staff development across the tourism and hospitality industries. It also helps employers reduce repetitive training and associated costs, helps raise individual’s self-esteem, improves retention rates and outlines development pathways. Full details of all the benefits can be found at www.ukskillspassport.co.uk
A vital part of the UKSP is the Good Employer Guide which signposts skilled individuals to the best employers in the sector.
The UKSP is a particularly useful tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro businesses as it provides straight-forward information on the sometimes complex training, qualifications and funding system.
It has been developed by People1st with support from the British Hospitality Association and Springboard. A prototype was launched in November 2006 with full functionality being available from May 2007.
top
Good Employer Campaign
On 28 November 2007, Tourism Minister Margaret Hodge, People1st and the British Hospitality Association launched the Good Employer Campaign. The campaign aims to get more sector businesses signed up to the Good Employer Guide, which celebrates good employers, allows prospective talent to identify where they will get the best experience and allows employees to rate their employers, thus driving up employer standards.
Employers signing up to the Guide rate themselves against best practice standards, highlighting areas they need to improve on, and their employees in turn have the opportunity to rate their employer against the same standards. To date, over 50 sector employers have signed up to the Guide.
The Good Employer Guide is an important part of the UK Skills Passport skills and employment resource for hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism.
For more information about the Good Employer Campaign, visit www.ukskillspassport.co.uk.
top
Skills Summits
In October 2005, James Purnell - the then Minister for Tourism - chaired the first DCMS and People 1st Skills Summit for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industries. This was followed by agreement at a second Skills Summit in January 2006 on the need for a National Skills Strategy (NSS) for the sector – providing coherence to individual regional strategies, and supporting People 1st in aligning education and training with employers’ needs.
To ensure the National Skills Strategy was "employer-led", People1st established four industry National Working Groups to look at the sector’s priority areas in more detail – see Skill Needs Assessment, above.
Chairs of each Working Group reported their recommendations at the third Skills Summit on 26 October 2006. Along with overarching work undertaken by People1st, these recommendations informed the final National Skills Strategy.
top
Skills Needs Assessment
The People 1st 2006 publication, “Skills Needs Assessment” is the result of extensive consultation with employers on their current and future skills needs in the largest labour and skills market research into the sector for the last 20 years.
The research shows serious skills gaps in the industry and highlights four priority areas:
Retention is a key issue for the sector to address. People are not staying in the sector long enough to develop their skills and experience. For too long the sector has focused on getting more and more people into the sector rather than on retaining the best talent we have.
People 1st estimate that nearly 600,000 people leave jobs in the sector every year, resulting in recruitment and retraining costs of some £900 million. By 2012 the sector will have lost more than 4 million people and £6.2 billion. These figures are based on a conservative estimate of a 30% staff turnover rate – although in reality it can be considerably higher.
The sector is also facing a major "skills gap" – a lack of technically skilled chefs, a lack of managers with the appropriate level of skills and experience, and a workforce with relatively poor customer service skills.
top
National Hospitality Skills Academy
The National Hospitality Skills Academy will deliver new and existing staff development programmes, recognised for the excellence across the industry.
On 31 October 2006, People1st’s coordinated bid to develop the academy was approved by the Department for Education and Skills and proceeded to business planning stage.
The proposals includes plans for an operational hotel school with paying guests; expanding the successful Junior Chef Academies; practical leadership and management development for those working in smaller companies; and certifying standards ("kitemarking") of existing provision.
