EP Magazine

Inspiration found?

Can the industry unite to showcase the best of hospitality? – update from a recent forum to discuss WorldSkills 2011

What is WorldSkills 2011?

• The key audience for 2011 will be 14-19-year-olds, with more than 150,000 students expected to attend and observe
• The event is hosted every two years £32 million invested in hosting the competition in London next year
• 1,200 competitors from 46 countries will attend
• There are three hospitality categories: confectioner/pastry, restaurant service and cooking
• Team members must be under 23 and either be employed or a student
• The squad for 2011 has been selected after a two-year selection process, but opportunities exist for forthcoming events

Last month a group of leaders from both industry and educationmet to discuss theWorldSkills competition, which will be held at ExCel, London in October 2011. The event presents a unique opportunity to promote UK vocational careers by showcasing high-performance, world-class standards througha series of skills-based competitions. But how can the event be capitalised on by the wider hospitality, leisure, travel and tourismsector?

Brian Wisdom, chief executive, People 1st, set out a proposal to boost awareness of the competition,making the following key points:

• The Hospitality, Leisure, Travel &Tourism (HLTT) sector is still growing and offers socialmobility for young people.
• WorldSkills presents an opportunity to promote careers to a broad crosssection of individuals who are either working in the industry or studying. 
• It will also provide a platform for encouraging participation in future competitions. Employer support is crucial, both in terms of promoting the event to their teams and then to support with time off for training. 
• The industry has a number of competitions in existence and these provide avenues for sourcing competitors and promoting WorldSkills, so there is a need for collective engagement among industry associations to work together andmaximise the benefit of this event. 
• The discussion raised a number of questions and comments.

Raising awareness

• The WorldSkills forum was the first time that a group of industry leaders had come together to discuss the potential benefits of London 2011.It was agreed that promoting the event to both students and employees was key to gathering momentum for next year and for future competitions. “I didn’t know about WorldSkills until recently, so the question is how can we raise the profile of this event.”

“Could we approach it like football scouts? So raise awareness of the event, and then keep an eye out for peoplewhomay be suitable for the competition?”

“The challenge with using a sporting analogy is that everyone has heard of the Olympic Games. At present,we need to kickstart a campaign for raising awareness
of this competition so that everyonewants to be an AdamSmith (see box below). It is about building that desire.”

Employer engagement

• A variety of technological resources will be deployed to get the message out to schools and educators on a national level.
• However, a ‘legacy event’ depends on engagement with industry and specifically employers.

“We run an apprenticeship programme and Iwould like to understand howto link inwith the competition, in order to promote it and raise interest.”

“Employers need to back this, so they need to understandwhat they are getting out of it.”

In conclusion – a careers showcase?

The group discussed the possibility of hosting a careers event simultaneously withWorldSkills 2011 specifically for the HLTT. This was responded to favourably by the group, and it was confirmed that a proposal for funding such an event is presently being considered. If realised, this could provide a significant opportunity for the industry in 2011 to boost retention and careers by showcasing skills excellence.

Last year’s goldmedal winner AdamSmith, sous chef at The Ritz London, spoke about what WorldSkills meant to him:

“It is my biggest achievement on a professional level. Froma team-building perspective, there is nothing else like it. This isn’t something at the top of the competitions list, but it should be; it is an excellent opportunity for training that you cannot find anywhere else.”