JKS brings back apprentice scheme with £20,000 salary

JKS Restaurants is bringing back its apprenticeship scheme for a second year and has upped the salary to £20,000.

Applications are open for the scheme, which will see trainees split their time across 14 London restaurants including Michelin-starred Sabor, Kitchen Table and Lyle’s, as well as more casual venues BiBi and BAO and the the Cadogan Arms pub.

The salary for the scheme has risen from £18,000 last year and apprentices will receive benefits including up to 50% off dining across the group, retail and gym discounts, and talks and trips with suppliers.

The academy is split into front of house and back of house programs and will give apprentices the chance to experience all aspects of both.

The year-long course will see candidates spend two months training at six restaurants while the final two to three months will be treated as an assessment of their skills.

A training manager will meet with apprentices every 12 weeks and act as a mentor through the program and end of year assessment.

Successful apprentices will be offered full-time roles or move onto a higher-level training program at the end of the scheme.

The academy launched last year and saw JKS hire ten apprentices, many of whom will move into permanent jobs in September.

Sunaina Sethi, people director and co-founder at JKS, said: “It has been such a joy to see such incredible talent and energy develop in our restaurants from our first cohort.

“With our portfolio of different brands the apprentices have gained exposure to different opportunities the hospitality industry has to offer. In turn, they have further bolstered our restaurants’ great sense of community. We truly look forward to growing, learning and improving our program for future intakes.”

Over the last two years a growing number of hospitality groups, including Rick Stein Restaurants and D&D London, have launched paid in-house training schemes to combat staff shortages in the sector.

There were 127,000 job vacancies across the hospitality sector between March and May this year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) although this was 46,000 down on the same period last year.

JKS was founded by the Sethi family in 2008.