The Casual Dining Group (CDG), one of the UK’s largest independent restaurant companies, plans to run 100 more apprenticeships this year on top of the 116 already in place across 60 restaurants within its portfolio.
Since its launch last year, which saw CDG partner with Remit Training to deliver apprenticeships across its growing estate of 300 restaurants, CDG has developed a scheme focusing on servers, chefs and managerial roles.
With just under 8,000 employees across its businesses, which include the Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas brands, plus airport concessions and its collection of restaurants in Centre Parcs, CDG is hiring more apprentices as a way to train, develop and retain high-calibre individuals.
CEO at Casual Dining Group, Steve Richards said, “We are delighted to be in the position to grow the number of apprentices in our business this year. The quality of our team plays a huge part in the guest experience and therefore the continuing success of our restaurants.
“There is real appetite in the business to offer more apprenticeship levels, and we are pleased to be building on our partnership with Karen Davies at The People Factor – Karen’s business has played a vital role in helping us land and build this programme – and also Remit Training, who have also supported our desire to grow our apprenticeship initiative.”
The current scheme offers a bespoke apprenticeship programme for each CDG brand, that supports the career development for existing staff and new recruits in kitchen, front of house and management roles.
The course is designed to deliver structured training for Level 2 and 3 apprentices, which helps them to gain the skills needed to progress in the industry, and are awarded with a qualification at the end.
Human Resources Director at Casual Dining Group, Jeremy Wright, said, “It’s fantastic to be able to offer our employees who are keen to progress in the industry an opportunity to acquire further skills and training. From a business perspective, there’s a huge benefit to investing in our staff in this way as retention is so important in our industry. We are looking forward to developing even more through our apprenticeship schemes this year with the help of Remit Training.”