“Please sir, hospitality wants some more”
Between the sporadic ‘meals’ when restaurants could open fully and the little government support provided in the form of rent holidays, business rate cuts, and last-minute furlough extensions, the hospitality industry has been deprived like no other over the past 18 months.
Grant supplements.
One of the more strategic government supplements to our starved learning and development budgets are the apprenticeship grants.
Businesses can claim £3,000 for each new apprentice that joins its organisation, which can be spent on anything from uniforms, travel and salaries to IT equipment and mentor programmes.
The payment is made to organisations in two equal instalments – the first due after an apprentice completes 90 days of their apprenticeship, and the second, after 365 days.
So, what is the catch?
While the apprenticeship grants were offered from as early as April 2021, many would argue that at this stage of the pandemic, hospitality businesses had not been open long enough to have the confidence to recruit.
With the remaining grants available for apprentices who start before 30th September 2021, the question now is whether businesses have the time or capacity to train complete novices during the busy summer season.
The stark reality
City and Guilds recently published its Skills Index 2021, and although it’s not hospitality-specific, it is worth noting some of the idiosyncrasies of the skills agenda of employers.
The report found that over 60 percent of employers prefer to hire ready-made talent rather than growing their own. The report also states that more than half (56 percent) of businesses faced barriers to developing their staff – one of the key barriers being lack of budget.
Use it, before we lose it!
While we may have missed the first three months of the initiative fighting for survival, learning how to do our jobs again, and redeploying already trained talent post furlough, the bottom line is that grants of £3,000 per apprentice are sitting in the government coffers and are under-utilised.
Whether you’re looking to recruit junior staff, supervisors or managers, if you have vacancies in your business, I urge you to turn them into apprenticeship vacancies.
The funding available not only allows you to offer applicants an appealing salary but the chance to join a structured training programme, too.
To make a significant difference to hospitality, many would argue that the initiative needs to be extended for at least a year. But while this is the hope, it cannot, of course, be guaranteed.
