A growth industry – but where are all the staff?

We can all remember, if only vaguely, the anticipation when waiting for the postman to arrive with exam results.

These memories came flooding back last week when I was asked to appear on BBC1's Business Breakfast to talk about the release of the A level results and the benefits of such qualifications when entering the contract catering industry.

It was opportune timing, with the industry currently refocusing on our future employees and realising that it must promote our business at schools. Two employment agencies are now working on initiatives to attract and encourage school leavers to join the catering industry.

As a company, we have received tremendous support from the Thames Valley Enterprise Council and the Hotel Catering Training Partnership for our "potential managers" programme, which in itself has its own NVQ qualification. This is now in its eighth month and going from strength to strength.

However, recent statistics are very worrying, with 339,000 people leaving the hospitality industry every year. Perhaps more disturbing is that only 1,400 school leavers join the contract catering industry annually.

Good old days

At a recent dinner, I bumped into an old college friend and we started to reminisce about the "good old days". What concerned us were our strong recollections of the lack of information available when preparing for our first jobs - in particular, which sector of the industry to enter.

Hotels were discussed and highly recommended, but contract catering was an unknown field.

It's imperative that we change the poor image of contract catering that has grown up, and that we are not viewed as the ugly sister of a Cinderella industry. Perhaps the imminent minimum wage will help.

On a brighter note, let's look at the continuing growth of the contract catering industry which, for Charlton House Catering, has provided a good month.

You can never put a price on social meetings - we've just gained two contracts within five days from good old networking.

One followed an after-dinner talk that I gave a year ago. Unbeknown to me, our new client made a note of my details and contacted me a few months ago to arrange a visit.

The other came by recommendation, when this client went to a bursars' conference and surveyed his colleagues about whether they could recommend their caterers. Of the large gathering, only one felt confident enough to put his head on the block to say: "Yes, talk to Charlton House Catering."

By coincidence, we had also gained this existing client by recommendation. While this is good news for us, it is very sad to think of all those bursars who aren't proud of their partnerships with their caterers.

Next diary from Robyn Jones will be on 18 September