HospitalityUnite, a website set up to help hospitality workers find alternative employment during lockdown, is now switching its focus to support the government’s Kickstart initiative for young people with the backing of The Scottish Tourism Alliance, UKHospitality, Springboard, and The Youth Group.
The website will provide a free online service to make it easy for both hospitality businesses and those 16-24 year-olds wanting to start a career in the restaurant, pub, hotel, and bar industries to take advantage of the new UK government funded scheme.
As part of the UK’s recovery strategy, the government is putting £2bn into the Kickstart programme which will fund six months of 25 hours a week work at national minimum wage for 16-24 year-olds. Only government approved candidates can apply to Kickstart roles and these candidates are being directed to Hospitality Unite jobs courtesy of The Youth Group and its partnership with the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) assessors.
The Youth Group improves opportunities for young people, has a community of 1.5 million looking to build a career in the post-covid environment. The original HospitalityUnite not-for-profit jobs portal was created in March free-of-charge by the team at Harri, the online people management platform, with the backing of UK Hospitality and The Scottish Tourism Alliance, to bring together businesses in other sectors such as care and retail to support hospitality staff with short term employment stop gaps while their sites were closed.
This new initiative has already secured commitment from several hospitality groups, including BrewDog, and The Ivy Collection.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “This is a really positive way of promoting the government’s Kickstart programme, set up to assist sectors like ours. We know from experience that hospitality benefits hugely from the enthusiasm, talents and innovation of young people in its workforce. As hospitality embarks on a journey of recovery after the impacts of the covid crisis, those attributes will be more valuable than ever, and the portal will be a great access point for people looking to break into exciting hospitality careers.”