The Hospitality Professionals Association (HOSPA) has launched a campaign to highlight and celebrate the wealth of opportunity available in the hospitality industry as it seeks to help people recognise the enormous potential for progression – with an emphasis on grass roots education.
The initiative, which has been dubbed ‘Share Your Success’, encourages those who work in hospitality and who have forged a successful career, to try and engage with younger generations to help inform them about the many positives associated with a career in hospitality and the level of advancement on offer.
Amidst an ongoing staffing crisis, HOSPA fears that, despite it being one of the largest and most successful sectors in the UK, not enough people approach hospitality with a view to staying in it long term. It’s an attitude that the association believes needs to be changed if the industry is to properly overcome its staffing shortages.
Commenting on the sentiment behind the campaign, Jane Pendlebury, CEO of HOSPA, (pictured), said, “All too often hospitality is regarded as a stop gap – a short-term solution before moving on to ‘bigger and better’ things. However, the truth is that bigger and better things are right here in hospitality. We are and should be the long-term option for those who are already working in the sector and for those who are considering it.”
Pendlebur continued, “Very few industries offer the same level of progression as hospitality. It’s not hyperbole to say that you can climb from the very bottom rung of the career ladder to the very top, learning an immense array of transferable skills as you go.
'There are countless examples of people who have done just that – and we want them to come forward and show others the possibilities on offer.”
To do this, the association is encouraging those who work in hospitality to celebrate their achievements – and for them in turn to do so by informing and educating young adults that there’s a fantastic industry ready and waiting to employ them.
HOSPA wants people who have achieved a degree of seniority in the industry to approach their local schools or colleges and offer to help educate students about the benefits of a career in the sector.
Pendlebury added, “To echo Harry Murray’s address at this year’s HOSPACE, hospitality needs to look to its leaders if it’s to thrive. Educating the young is all part of being a leader. We want those who’ve been there and done it, to show others the way.”
Prospective participants are invited to visit the HOSPA website to sign up, where they will receive an email template to help them form an introduction with their school of choice
Pendlebury concluded, “By reaching out to schools we will help form bonds with grass roots education, helping to sow the seeds of a hospitality career in younger generations and benefit the industry for years to come. We invite you to come forward and share your success with both us and those who need to hear it.”