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The Hospitality Apprenticeship Showcase (HAS) is back for its fifth year to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week. Usually taking place in the House of Commons, this year’s HAS, will be hosted online on Thursday 11 February.
The Hospitality Apprenticeship Showcase unites companies to portray the diverse range of roles within the sector and to reiterate the importance of cross-party support to ensure the hospitality sector has the right foundations to continue to thrive in our towns, cities and villages. For the past four years, around one thousand apprentices from the hospitality sector have showcased their skills to Lords, Ladies, and MPs as they celebrate National Apprenticeship Week in the House of Commons.
This year’s event will be hosted by Gillian Keegan MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills and Mike Wood MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group. It will involve an online round table discussion, where hospitality apprentices will have the chance to ask the MPs their burning questions.
The hospitality industry has been hit hard in 2020. Due to the pandemic, the annual loss of sales amounted to circa £53.3billion across the hospitality industry. The ONS reported that the hospitality industry had the biggest decline in payroll between February and November last year. This loss in jobs is more than what has been seen in the retail and wholesale industry and manufacturing industry combined.
Sector specialist and MD of HIT Training, Jill Whittaker, who will be chairing the session said: “We are delighted that both Minister Keegan and Mr. Wood MP are attending the virtual Apprenticeship event. This year’s HAS is going to be rather different from previous years, and while we will miss the energetic, interactive event staged at the House of Commons, we are sure some interesting questions will be posed to the Minister from apprentices across the industry.
“As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and currently being in the third national lockdown, young people are feeling more sidelined than ever. The economic fallout has seen their career prospects diminish and negativity and depression loom in a demographic that is full of potential, creativity, and drive. However, I am certain that hospitality will not only survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will prosper as it rebuilds with first class learning and development programmes, investing in lasting careers. We will show that hospitality is a viable, stable career prospect that young people, and indeed people of all ages, can turn to as we emerge from this pandemic.”
To date, apprentices from the Stonegate Group, Fuller, Smith and Turner PLC, Marston’s PLC, Mitchells & Butlers, JD Wetherspoon, McDonald’s, Springboard and Diageo are amongst those to confirm their participation in the free HAS 2021 event, with the full list of participants to be announced.
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