I have worked in the hospitality and tourism sector for 50 years, championing education and training in the industry.
During a career spanning over 50 years, I have worked with many Trade Associations, Professional Bodies and Colleges to raise standards of education and training in the Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure industry.
The early part of my career was spent with the statutory Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board (HCITB) where I became Director of Training, with responsibility for a National Recruitment, Training and Enterprise Strategy. I subsequently set up my own company, Hospitality and Leisure Manpower (HALM), and over the next 30 years led a number of initiatives as part of the government’s Tourism Strategy.
This included work with The British Hospitality Association to create and manage ‘Excellence through People’, an accreditation scheme to improve employment practices in the industry; the ‘Hospitality Skills Academy’, to drive up the quantity and quality of apprenticeships, and the ‘Best Practice Forum’ for tourism, hospitality and leisure, to increase levels of productivity. Work over seven years with some 5,750 hotels, restaurants, pubs and attractions resulted in year on year productivity gains in excess of £178 million.
In 2013 HALM was acquired by the British Institute of Innkeeping and, in 2017, became part of the Institute of Hospitality. Until last year I continued to manage the Roux Scholarship, which I founded in 1984 with Michel and Albert Roux, and I currently provide the Secretariat for The Gold Service Foundation, which together with seven founding Trustees, I helped create in 2012.
I was educated at Morecambe Grammar School and Blackpool College of Technology and later attended the London Business School. I was awarded a Master of Science Degree by the University of Lancaster.
I was a founding Director of the Academy of Food and Wine Service, a Fellow of the Tourism Society and a Trustee of the Savoy Educational Trust. In 2000 I became President of the, now, Institute of Hospitality. I was for many years a Governor of Merton College, where I chaired the audit committee. Since 2019 I have happily been an Ambassador for Tourism for All.
Training has always been critical and now it’s more important than ever
Throughout my career I’ve been well aware of the importance of delivering excellent customer service. It is a key driver of business growth and essential in giving a much needed competitive edge to the UK Hospitality and Tourism industry. This will be even more so post Brexit, when safeguarding and creating new jobs is depending heavily on our ability to deliver world class standards of service excellence in an international market place.
Post pandemic, the recruitment, training, and development of highly motivated and productive teams of Front of House professionals will be even more important to ensure business success. Team members need to understand the needs of a diverse range of customers and the ways in which these needs can be met, as well as having both the competence and confidence to do so.
The Gold Service Scholarship was created to help drive up standards of service
The Gold Service Scholarship was created to inspire, educate and nurture the UK’s finest Front of House talent. Launched in 2012 as the UK’s most prestigious Front House of award, it offers the opportunity for an aspiring individual to hone their craft through mentoring, travel and placement opportunities provided by the industry’s most senior service professionals. Building upon a firm heritage of the UK’s excellence in service, the award seeks to exceed the standards of best practice in the hospitality and tourism sector.
With an increasing international reputation, and with Her Majesty The Queen as Patron, the award continues to receive tremendous industry support. The Gold Service Scholarship provides exceptional early career stage potential for young people, and has created a community of Scholars as members of ‘Team Gold’ to achieve the brightest possible future.
The Scholarship focuses on great service for everyone, including those with access needs
Those who reach the Semi-Final and Final stages of the Scholarship are now given access to TFA’s online customer service training courses. These have been specially designed to help Front of House team members provide high quality service to those with impairments and access needs.
The importance of delivering high standards of service to those with impairments and access needs was especially highlighted in the recent survey conducted in 2022 by the Business Disability Forum (BDF) and supported by Microsoft. The research amongst many of the one in five people in the UK who have an impairment found that providing good information and service was a major factor in helping them determine where to spend their money.
The Gold Service Scholarship is open to any young person working Front of House in hospitality or tourism
The Gold Service Scholarship is open to anyone aged 22-28 working Front of House in the UK to deliver food and beverage service. This includes Restaurants, Hotels and Gastro Pubs, large and small, along with other sectors of the Hospitality and Tourism industry including Events, Attractions, Business and Industry Catering, and Clubs.
The Scholarship next opens for entries on the 1st September and closes on the 3rd October 2022. Information about The Scholarship, together with details on how to enter, can be found on the Scholarship website: www.thegoldservicescholarship.co.uk.
As I get older I appreciate more the issues with access which people face every day
With increasing age I recognise my own sight, hearing and mobility are not as good as they once were. Although my general health is better than many of my age I do appreciate far more than I once did the problems of access which others have to encounter every day. It makes me strive ever harder to fulfil my role as an Ambassador for Tourism for All, particularly in my work with employers and their front of house teams who are ideally placed to give excellent service to guests and customers with impairments or access needs. There are also lots of job roles where those with impairments and access needs can be employed. In recent years I have identified many examples of good practice which follow the customer journey, and I’m very keen to share these with others across the Hospitality and Tourism industry.
