The Pub & Bar Careers team attended the ‘Developing a Youth Strategy’ event hosted by Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) on the 7th March, which marked the end of National Apprenticeship Week.
The event took place days after M&B pledged to recruit a further 1,000 apprentices, totalling 2,500 throughout their nationwide business.
The afternoon showcased the positive benefits that employing young people as apprentices has on businesses. The event explained step-by-step how to engage with young people and how to build an encouraging youth strategy. M&B offered their hospitality partners, the opportunity to share their youth strategy, which also demonstrated a solution to the industry wide recruitment issue.
To showcase the best practice of managing young and energetic students through the transition period into future business leaders, M&B invited spokespeople to talk through the ‘Developing Opportunities’ timeline. Those speaking included a schoolteacher, university lecturer and a range of apprentices.
The representatives were each advocates of the youth strategy and ‘Development Opportunities’ timeline (please see below). All of the individuals had experience in travelling through the timeline whilst working on the apprenticeship scheme. Each spoke about how the youth strategy can be mirrored in businesses, schools and universities to benefit the next generation of hospitality.
A school pupil highlighted that since completing work experience with M&B, his negative perception of a career in hospitality changed and now he is aiming for an apprenticeship position after school.
The ‘Schools Programme’ work experience section of the development timeline was made achievable by Believe in Young People (BiYP). BiYP is a charity that aims to bridge the gap between businesses and schools to develop a quality workforce pipeline of young people.
To find out more about M&B’s Developing a Youth Strategy please visit their website: www.mbapprenticeships.co.uk or for more information about Believe in Youth People visit: www.believeinyoungpeople.com
Published by