Over 100 hospitality and tourism business leaders from across Birmingham, including restaurants, hotels, events venues and visitor attractions, will take part in the 30th Big Hospitality Conversation, on Thursday 4th June 2015 at Crowne Plaza City Centre to offer career opportunities, apprenticeships and work placements for young job seekers in Birmingham.
According to the latest data from May 2015, Birmingham has the highest youth unemployment rate – 9.1 per cent – amongst UK core cities. This is significantly above the UK average of 6.2 per cent.
The hospitality and tourism industry is particularly effective in tackling youth unemployment. Over 40 per cent of staff in hospitality and tourism is under the age of 30, compared to an average of 19 per cent across UK Plc.
The BHA led Big Hospitality Conversation celebrates career opportunities in the industry and connects employers who pledge to deliver structured work placements, apprenticeships and employment, with young job seekers.
In just two years, the Big Hospitality Conversation, a nationwide campaign led by the BHA, has brought together more than 2,000 businesses to create over 42,000 new career opportunities for young people across the country. Headed for Birmingham on 4 June, the BHA campaign – supported by JobCentrePlus, DWP, the National Apprenticeship Service, Springboard and Believe in Young People – aims to create 60,000 new career starts for young job seekers by 2016.
According to the research by the BHA and Oxford Economics 8.4% of working people in Birmingham are part of the hospitality and tourism industry and this is expected to rise significantly over the next five years.
Ufi Ibrahim, CEO of the British Hospitality Association said: “The hospitality and tourism industry continues to outperform others industries, and accounts for 17 per cent of all new jobs in the UK since 2010. We expect this trend to continue especially in Birmingham, where business and leisure travel, national and international conferences and events, and broader hospitality activity are all forecast to continue to grow.
“For young people living here in Birmingham, a career in hospitality and tourism offers an opportunity to be part of a dynamic, growing and competitive sector with great prospects for growth. The breadth of roles and the training available means that new entrants can succeed very quickly, climbing the career ladder towards even greater opportunities in the industry.”
Anne Pierce, CEO of Springboard said: “Springboard is proud to be one of the founder partners of the Big Hospitality Conversation. It is recognised that work experience plays key part in influencing a person’s career choice and this is why we are taking a lead role in this initiative through Springboard’s quality work experience programme, INSPIRE, which has been developed to provide job seekers with valuable work experience.”
