UKHospitality has urged the Department for Work and Pensions to guarantee existing hospitality apprenticeship standards during an ongoing government review.
In a letter to Baroness Smith of Malvern, the minister for skills, the trade body said apprenticeships in hospitality support growth, provide learning opportunities for young people and underpin career development and progression across the sector.
It warned that any reduction in the number of hospitality apprenticeship standards would undermine the government’s objectives to support young people into work and reduce economic inactivity.
UKHospitality also raised concerns that an increasing focus on industrial strategy sectors, at the expense of hospitality and what the chancellor has described as the “everyday economy”, risked creating a two-tier economy and society.
In the letter, chief executive Allen Simpson said: “Hospitality is one of the UK’s highest users of apprenticeships and plays a central role in delivering opportunities for all. Apprenticeships are fundamental to that offer.
“Hospitality already operates with a relatively small number of standards, and these are comparatively low cost when set against those in many other sectors. Any further reduction would therefore have a disproportionate impact on our ability to recruit, train and progress people effectively.”
He added that the organisation was concerned the growing emphasis on industrial strategy sectors risked doing “real damage”.
“It is creating the conditions for a two-tier economy that could lead to a two-tier society, where opportunities are increasingly denied to many because of their educational attainment or social background,” Simpson said.
He said it was “imperative” that hospitality was allowed to retain apprenticeship standards that provided “a meritocratic pathway to management for young people”.
“By cutting off development opportunities in hospitality, government risks undermining its own objectives to support young people into work and to reduce economic inactivity at all ages,” he said. “Apprenticeships in our sector are a practical and proven mechanism for achieving both aims.”
Simpson said UKHospitality was therefore urging the government to guarantee that existing hospitality apprenticeship standards were protected for at least the next 24 months, while the sector worked with ministers and other partners to determine future skills needs.
