Lorna MacPherson-Johnston, Industry F&B Director, has launched a petition calling on the government to recognise hospitality as a skilled career and to embed it in careers education in schools, job centres and employment services across the UK.
The petition, Recognise Hospitality as a Skilled Career and Embed it in UK Education and Employment Path, is hosted on Change.org and is open for signatures now.
It is a response to a gap in the industry’s talent pool that has been widening since Brexit, the pandemic and last year’s visa reforms. “Rather than sit back and wait, I felt we really needed to do something about it,” says Lorna. “For me, the most positive way to tackle this challenge was to find a way to inspire the next generation.”
“In many countries, hospitality is viewed as a skilled profession and a lifelong career, yet in the UK it has often been seen as little more than a stopgap job. An unconscious bias still hangs over the industry, preventing many young people from genuinely considering it as a long-term and rewarding career path.”
Lorna points to youth unemployment running at a record high, with 99,000 more young people out of work between November last year and January this year, and to the growth of AI narrowing the number of first jobs open to school leavers.
AI can make our admin easier, but it can never replace the human connection hospitality provides.
“As a profession, we have such a low barrier to entry. All we require is a can-do attitude and a willingness to learn,” she says. “Hospitality is the perfect solution to this if the awareness was there. AI can make our admin easier, but it can never replace the human connection hospitality provides.”
Hospitality is the third-largest employer in the UK, yet Lorna says it is rarely presented to young people as a fulfilling, long-term option when they are weighing up their careers. The petition asks for that to change, with hospitality represented in schools and in careers and job centres alongside other skilled professions.
“I feel this petition is the best way of ensuring that, as the third-biggest employer in the UK, we are represented in schools and in any career and job centres, so we have a chance at inspiring future talent, as well as reducing youth unemployment in this country.”
Lorna is asking operators, bartenders and anyone working in the trade to sign and share the petition. It can be found via https://c.org/NdtT27Rzvm.
