Entries sought for Olive Barnett prize

Careers advice organisation Springboard UK is seeking entries for the 2004 Olive Barnett Award, which recognises excellence in front-of-house activity.

The first prize for the award, which is being sponsored by recruitment consultants Chess Partnership and the Savoy Educational Trust, is a place on next year's hospitality management summer programme at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, plus a £1,000-a-year career development grant for three years.

Entrants must be under the age of 30 and be in permanent employment in the hospitality, leisure or tourism profession anywhere in the world, working in reception or front of house or in a customer service position.

Candidates are asked to submit a 500-word answer to the question, "Why is the reception or front-of-house role one of the most important in the business?". After an initial judging, a shortlist of eight candidates will be invited to make a presentation about their career aspirations to a panel of judges in London next spring.

Named after a leading member of the Savoy hotel's training department in the 1970s and 1980s, the award was previously administered by the Savoy Gastronomes, an association of hoteliers who had completed training in reception at the Savoy hotel. The gastronomes continue to support the award but, by handing it over to Springboard, hope to attract more entries.

Chris Sheppardson, managing director of Chess, said: "Front of house is one of the most important factors of the industry. Customers make a judgement within minutes of arriving, and it is vitally important that the profile of this underrated sector of the industry is raised to the level of significance that it deserves."

Full entry details may be found on www.springboarduk.org.uk/olive.