The hospitality sector has a higher vacancy rate than any other sector. Credit: Alberto Pezzali/AP
The government is developing hospitality “boot camps” to bring the unemployed back to work and help the country's pubs and bars fill more than 100,000 job openings.
Ministers met with industry representatives to discuss how to make it easier for the unemployed to find a job. or in this sector, according to The Telegraph.
One of the ideas being considered is to set up boot camps where Job Center candidates would be trained in basic hospitality skills such as food preparation and food safety, setting them up to easily take positions in the hospitality industry.
It is clear that ministers hope to roll out a pilot scheme in the fall.
Conservative MP Alan Cairns, chairman of the All Party Beer Parliamentary Group, said: “There is a significant number of people who are economically inactive, and the hospitality sector offers ideal employment opportunities.
“This boot camp could play a key role in the development of young people who are away from work.”
This is as the government pushes to get people back to work after a surge in inactivity post-pandemic.
The UK is the only G7 economy with higher levels of inactivity now than pre-Covid, missing out on a vital rebound in employment. 8.7 million people are not working and not looking for work.
1407. The rate of inactivity is falling everywhere except the UK.
Rising levels of inactivity have left industries struggling to recruit staff, with the hospitality industry hardest hit.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, which represents pubs and restaurants, said: “We are promoting the role of hospitality in this regard because, essentially, we can take someone with no experience and quickly upgrade their skills.”
Mel Stride, the secretary of labor and pensions, said earlier that he would seek “quick wins” in the fight to boost employment. In November, he said he wanted to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy.
Last year, he said: “I really want to make rapid progress, because many of these schemes take a long time to get up, work out the details, test , evaluate, expand. I think we need to get out of this loop much faster.”
Tony Wilson of the Institute for Employment Research said the boot camps were “a good idea.”
He said, “These things work best when they're focused on the job, not the classroom – in mostly in collaboration with the employer, which leads to work experience and interviews.”
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Study camps can help address a persistent skills shortage in the hospitality industry. According to the Office for National Statistics, the industry has a higher proportion of unfilled vacancies than any other sector, with almost 130,000 open vacancies.
That's the equivalent of more than 5 percent of the industry's total workforce.< /p>
Pubs and restaurants are struggling to adjust to the loss of migrant workers, Mr Wilson said.
End freedom of movement after Brexit and the UK's new immigration system focused on high-paid skilled migration has led to a sharp decline in the number of people coming here to take jobs in pubs and restaurants.
The demographic decline in the number of workers aged 20 to 20 year olds who are often looking for jobs in the hospitality industry have also exacerbated the problems.
A Department for Work & A spokesman for the Pension Fund said: “We are working closely with the hospitality sector to address the specific challenges they face in hiring workers.
“We are continuing to work with UK Hospitality to explore how we can offer additional support , while also helping prepare job seekers to fill local vacancies.”
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