The people and skills shortage in our industry is everywhere and driving along the M4 this morning listening to Chris Evans’ breakfast show is now also on national radio.
Evans spoke about the difficulty he is experiencing in recruiting a chef for his pub in Surrey. Apparently, he is friends with Tom Kerridge who when they spoke about the same subject Kerridge told him ‘he was in the same boat’.
Given that we live in a society that is mesmerised by celebrity and Chris Evans would certainly qualify as a celebrity as does Tom Kerridge in our industry, does the fact that even employers who ‘enjoy’ celebrity status can’t evade the people and skills shortage in our industry give us even more reason for concern?
H&C News’ frustration with the frequency and volume in publishing news relating to the people and skills shortage in our industry led us to making it the central theme to our H&C EXPO event in July.
The H&C EXPO conference and roundtable agenda will see many from our industry come together to discuss, debate and look for ideas to implement to ease the situation.
We do not for a moment think there is a short-term fix or solution to the issue, but we do think that initiatives like the Student and Industry Leaders conference will see some reality brought to the table. Some plain speaking needs to take place and one item on the agenda is the experience of the first job in our industry. Does it provide a taste that whets the appetite for more?