The Government is offering free recruitment support and up to £1,000 as a reward to hospitality operators if they promote job vacancies to young, British jobseekers instead of migrants.
Employers taking on a young jobseeker aged 18-24 through Jobcentre Plus, who has completed the Government’s Routes into Work pre-employment training programme, will receive free recruitment support, £500 when a person starts work, and a further £500 if they are still in employment after 26 weeks.
Jobseekers applying for hospitality positions through Routes to Work will have benefited from an eight-week training programme designed by People 1st and Sector Skills Councils, and given basic skills such as health and safety and customer service.
The programme, which launched last month, has been developed in collaboration with Sector Skills Councils in response to skills shortages and signs of growth in the hospitality sector.
'Give jobs to Brits, not migrants'
While VisitBritain has estimated up to 164,000 jobs could be created in the hospitality and leisure sector in the next few years, Jim Knight, employment minister, told BigHospitality that he wanted to see those vacancies going to young, UK-born people, rather than overseas workers.
“There have been a lot of migrant workers in the hospitality industry over the past few years and it seems a shame that for whatever reason some of our young people that are more local haven’t gotten into the industry,” he said. “The hospitality industry is a really important sector, and has really good potential for growth in the economy at a time when others are struggling. We can see a lot of jobs there.”
Routes into Work is part of the Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee, which promises a job, training or work experience to every young person who has been unemployed for six months or more.