Pubs minister hails sector as pub careers scheme launched

24 May 2013 by
Pubs minister hails sector as pub careers scheme launched

Pubs Minister Brandon Lewis (pictured), MP has highlighted the importance of the pub sector to the national economy, as he spoke an event launching the Pub and Bar Careers scheme, which aims to offer 15,000 work placements to young people over the coming months.

The scheme, organised by the Hospitality Guild and the Pub Perceptions Group, has already seen 1,500 placements pledged, and 3,000 apprenticeships made available.

The pre-employment training programme will equip young people with foundation level qualifications and prepare them for entry into employment via a traineeship, apprenticeship or as a stepping stone on a structured career path. The pub sector currently accounts for one in six of all new jobs for 18 to 24-year-olds.

Lewis said: "Pubs are massively important to the local community, not least of all because even your local pub contributes about £100,000 to the local economy. Around 48% of pub employees are under the age of 25. It is a phenomenal industry that employs through its supply chain and directly about a million people across our country.

"I don't think we do enough nationally to highlight just those kind of figures and how important it makes the industry to our country. It is a phenomenal career opportunity on a number of levels. I think it is brilliant that we have got an industry that is developing people's skills and developing things in the way Pub Perceptions is doing voluntarily across the industry."

"Pubs and bars are generally seen as a short-gap; part-time, pocket-money job. The reality is that they offer a diverse and interesting range of career opportunities", said Keith Knowles, chairman of Perceptions Group. "It is often by accident that young people stumble on a career in this industry and you only have to look around at the great retailers, big and small, within our sector such as Spirit Group, Stonegate Pub Company, Drake and Morgan, Yummy Pubs and my own business Beds and Bars to see the wealth of talent that has evolved through the training and development of our young people."

The national programme emerged from a ground-breaking programme that was aimed at getting homeless and disadvantaged young people back into work. London pub, the Somers Town Coffee House, in Chalton Street, London, linked up with neighbouring New Horizons Youth Centre to create a programme that gave young people the confidence, skills and basic qualifications to enter the industry.

Anthony Pender, director of Yummy Pubs, operator of the Somers Town Coffee House, said: "This scheme really does give young people an opportunity. Four of my employees have come via this route and we have signed up to take another 30 over the next year as our pub business grows. With around a million young people unemployed we, as an industry, are well placed to be part of the solution in offering not only jobs, but also long-term careers."

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