£100 million funding for Hospitality Skills Academy

The bid – co-ordinated by People 1st – will mean that over £100 million of government funding will be moved into developing talent for hospitality employers. An estimated 65,000 learners are expected to pass through Academy approved programmes in the next five years. The Academy will consist of a number of new training environments. Hotel and restaurant schools will be established in major cities and will be designed to run on a commercial basis while recruiting and developing learners. Companies including Barcelo Hotels, Compass Group plc, Terry Laybourne and the Edge Foundation are investing over £14 million to develop these facilities and are joined by organisations from across the sector including Sodexho, Aramark, InterContinental Hotels and Paramount Restaurants that have the staff, time and resources to support the Academy. Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, commented: "Rising costs and greater competition for a diminishing young workforce have made life more difficult for our employers, so we are delighted to have secured over £100 million of funding for one of our industries. This is a truly massive achievement, and gives us the opportunity to compete with other sectors of UK PLC." He continued: "The scale of this shift in funding is a first and all the partners' hard work and support has allowed us to pull this together for the industry. The development of the Academy is a key part of our National Skills Strategy, and provides the platform for ensuring the high calibre entry routes into the sector are the best in UK PLC."