Hospitality is losing too many talented graduates

The hospitality industry is losing too many highly trained, talented young people before they are able to make a serious long-term contribution to the industry, Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association and chairman of the National Skills Academy, told hospitality students in a lecture at the University of Surrey.

He said the industry was wasting the talent that it had recruited.

"Of the 600 students degree level hospitality students we believe we produce every year, how many will even enter the hospitality industry in this country? We don't know. How many will still be in the industry in five years time? We don't know. Some surveys and anecdotal evidence suggest that the number is alarmingly small.

"Is it because they made the wrong career choice in the first place? Is it because they had a bad experience in their industrial year? Is it because they had problems with their on-going training? Is it because they couldn't find the right job when they leave? Is it because there are too many overseas students? Is it because the college course was too good, and equipped them for a career in another industry?"

Mr Cotton said that it was disappointing that the wastage from higher level hospitality courses was so high after 40 years in which some 25,000 degree level graduates had entered the industry.

"What is needed is a manpower strategy which outlines the number of recruits needed every year and the qualifications they need. People 1st, the Sector Skills Council, and the National Skills Academy have been tasked to develop this strategy. In terms of numbers, this is incredibly difficult in such a diversified and fragmented industry. But until we do something about a strategy, we remain in a state of more or less total ignorance.

"Colleges get little or no advice on the numbers of students required and the qualifications they need. Not only do we not accurately know how many students are presently going through catering colleges, but so varied are these courses, we don't really know what they comprise.

"Are there too few or possibly too many colleges? Are there too many courses? Are there too few good lecturers? Are there so many different qualifications now that employers have only the vaguest notion what they mean? Should we simplify the system, reduce the variety of courses so that employers can more easily understand them?

"To put it mildly, this state of ignorance is not a good position for the industry to be in after 40 years of intensive development of college education. We've needed answers for many years; we still need answers. We just don't have them."

Mr Cotton said that the industry's priorities must be to raise the level of training in three areas - craft, front of house and supervisory and management.

"Undoubtedly, raising our management and leadership skill levels is the most important of these because it'll be our managers who will dictate whether - and how well - the industry develops its craft and service delivery skills.

"The wisest leaders of tomorrow will recognise that training our cooks and chefs, and our waiters and our front office staff, will be the key to future success.

"But not only training them. We have to nurture them, encourage them, motivate them, develop them to their full potential. Only if we care about the people we employ, will we successfully recruit them into the industry - and retain them."

Words: Clare Riley

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