With 2022 drawing to a close, it is time to look ahead to what next year will bring for your business.
With difficult economic conditions and recruitment challenges likely to continue, you could be excused for feeling a little gloomy as you make plans for 2023.
However, there are still opportunities amidst all the uncertainties and, as always, BIIAB is on hand to provide training and development solutions for your team.
Here’s our advice for how you can use apprenticeships to develop your team, invest in your business, and set yourself up for a successful year.
Upskill your team
With the number of hospitality vacancies continuing to soar, working out how to recruit the necessary staff might feel like a headache. But have you considered that there may be solutions within your existing team?
When you think of apprentices, you may think of young people entering the workplace for the first time, but apprenticeships can be taken at any age or career stage. There are apprenticeships available for roles at a variety of levels in hospitality, from Commis Chef and Hospitality Team Member to Senior Production Chef and Chef de Partie. The ‘on the job’ training facilitated by apprenticeships means they are perfect for hospitality settings and offer a great way for staff to take the next step in their career.
Promote the benefits to attract new talent
Apprenticeships are a great way to recruit new team members too. Initiatives such as National Apprenticeship Week and Hospitality Apprenticeships Week, plus improved careers education, are helping to make more young people aware of this exciting pathway.
Consider what opportunities are available locally to help you attract apprentices; you could build relationships with schools and colleges near you to create a pipeline of potential new talent. By selling the benefits of working in hospitality, you can make it easier to attract new staff.
A variety of negative perceptions around the hospitality industry continue to circulate, such as it only offering short-term jobs and the working hours being unsocial. But by promoting the positives of working in the sector, such as flexibility, fun working environments, and significant progression opportunities, you can attract the staff you need. And by using apprenticeships to offer new recruits a clear progression plan, you will develop the loyal staff members you need for the challenging times ahead.
Don’t forget that there is funding available for you to train apprentices too. The amount you can get will depend on your pay bill and number of employees, but you could have 90-100% of your apprenticeship training costs funded by the government. Apprenticeships are therefore a cost-effective recruitment tool at a time when budgets are tight. Find out more about apprenticeship funding here.
You could have 90-100% of your apprenticeship training costs funded by the government.
Build a welcoming workplace culture
Apprenticeships are an accessible pathway, providing learners from all backgrounds with a clear route to a successful career. By recruiting apprentices, you can build a diverse and welcoming team, which will ensure you can continue to attract top talent in the future. Furthermore, diverse companies tend to have better customer orientation and employee satisfaction levels, making it easier to retain staff.
As part of the Skills and Education Group, BIIAB is committed to championing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The Group recently entered a new partnership with WorldSkills UK, with the ambition of enabling young people of all backgrounds to succeed. We also had a notable apprentice success story recently, as our staff member Areeba Kainat won the Intermediate Apprentice of the Year Award at the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards.
By raising awareness of apprenticeships, and by ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds can access them, we can give hospitality employers more choice when recruiting, helping to create higher-performing workplaces.
A one-stop shop for all your hospitality training needs
If you’re interested in using apprenticeships to develop your team, BIIAB can help.
All apprentices must pass an end-point assessment in order to complete their apprenticeship and start work. BIIAB offers 18 end-point assessments for a variety of hospitality and catering apprenticeships, including the Level 3 Event Assistant, Level 3 Hospitality Supervisor, and Level 4 Hospitality Manager standards.
In addition, BIIAB offers a huge variety of qualifications in hospitality and catering, plus related fields such as business support and licensing. There are qualifications available to support all of your business operations – and many of them can be delivered as part of apprenticeships.
To find out more about how BIIAB can support apprenticeships, visit our End-Point Assessment page or contact the team.