Westminster City Council’s £1m Hospitality and Leisure Recruitment Programme has begun.
The two year programme, led by Westminster Business Improvement Districts, has appointment Step Ahead and high street vitality agency Attis Town to deliver the service which aims to recruit at least 2,200 employees over the next two years.
Thousands of jobs around the West End and Westminster remain unfilled more than a month after the end of all Covid-19 restrictions in England and Wales.
Nationally there are 178,000 vacancies in the accommodation and food industries – the highest number since statistics started being recorded in 2001.
Across the UK the ratio of hospitality jobs to vacancies has reached an all-time high of one vacancy for every eight jobs, and the situation is thought to be worse in central London.
The project will work with employers to understand their needs for skills, including seasonal requirements and then identify potential sources of employees, understand their requirements, their motivators and any barriers. The focus will then be on ensuring that we effectively match job seekers to employers to create long term, sustainable relationships.
Starting from March 21st 2022, the first 100-day phase of the programme will focus on engaging with employers and employees in the hospitality and leisure businesses in Westminster. This will help us to understand more fully the issues that motivate people to work in these sectors and to identify practical ways of lowering some of the barriers that prevent some of them from doing so.
Informed by findings from the first phase, the consortium will launch the scheme fully in early July.
To register your interest and become part of the programme please enter your details here:https://whalrs.org/
