Lessons in lodgings
The competition is stiff. Sandra McLellan, personnel and training manager of the Langham Hilton, is demonstrating the advantages of a career in the hospitality industry to students from the Leys school in Cambridge. She is trying to capture the attention of students taking A levels in biology, maths and physics. Some of the 12 students have already made up their minds on the future.
As part of the Let's Make it First Choice campaign, the students are taking a tour of four industry establishments: the Langham Hilton, Chiquitos, the Savoy and Leith's School of Food and Wine.
The Langham is the first port of call and the students are immediately impressed by the feeling of opulence. "This is better than my house," says one student on seeing one of the hotel's suites.
Marbled floors and luxurious settings are not enough to sell them completely on the idea of a hotel career, however. To emphasise the glamour side further, McLellan gets the students interested in a Hilton Career Tracks video and fires some statistics at them. Hilton International has 160 hotels staffed by some 54,000 people in 50 countries, she tells them. Her tack is to get them thinking about travel opportunities within the group, but she is practical as well.
"If you have another language, it's easy to move into the European field, but Spain and Greece don't have the labour turnover and for America you need a Green Card before Hilton will consider you for a posting out there," she says.
It's one student's dream to spend a year in Italy after school to learn the language. Ideally, she would then come back to work in the hotel industry with the hope of being transferred one day. As none of the 12 has ever worked in a hotel before, McLellan takes them through the career path from entry.
Someone without a degree but with initiative and personality could, says McLellan, approach the hotel to see if it could offer them something. Starting salary would be between £7,000 and £8,000. At this level, it would take between eight and 10 years to get to a management position in a five-star hotel. On the other hand, with a degree in either catering or business, the career path, starting as a trainee and working up to front-office manager, takes roughly five years, with a supervisory position after the first year. Graduates could expect to start on about £10,000.
Mentioning money always gets a response and, although starting salaries may seem low, McLellan receives enthusiastic nods when she asks if anyone is interested in joining the Langham Hilton. Further encouragement comes from executive chef Antony Marshall, who says: "You can work anywhere in the world but you have to love what you're doing."
Next on the agenda is lunch at Chiquitos in Leicester Square. There's just time for a quick tour round the 400-seat restaurant and bar beforehand. The students are impressed by the 8,000 covers the restaurant serves weekly, as well as the £15,000 the bar grosses weekly.
At this moment, each student is imagining him or herself behind the bar, juggling cocktail shakers and dreaming up new drinks. To bring them back to reality, general manager Craig Harden goes through the staff hierarchy from service assistant/bus person through to supervisor of front or back of house. "The theme restaurant business has a lot to do with personality. If you're lively and enthusiastic, that's what is going to make you progress," he says.
To give the students an idea of the scale of Chiquitos, which is part of City Centre Restaurants, Harden tells them that the Leicester Square outlet turns over £5m a year and there are 19 Chiquitos countrywide, with two new restaurants due to open in Enfield and Leeds by the end of the year.
Next it's off to the Savoy for afternoon tea, a flower-arranging demonstration and a smoked-salmon carving display. These show the students the variety of opportunities in the hotel industry.
"People think the industry is all about making beds and serving food but there's a lot more jobs there. Even if you want to be a lawyer, the personnel side needs you. There's a huge range of opportunities available," says Eric Beckley, personnel and training manager for the Savoy hotel.
General manager Duncan Palmer meets the students en route. Palmer went to the Leys school so the students are keen to listen to what he has to say. They are beginning to think that maybe a career in the industry is not such a bad idea.
So how does someone get a job with the Savoy Group? This is where Beckley and Beth Aarons, group training manager, come in. "We employ people on their merits, enthusiasm and flexibility, rather than the skills they have. Then, you can train them in everything else. If you are enthusiastic and committed, then a degree doesn't matter," says Aarons.
The Savoy Group participates in two career open days a year. Alternatively, students can apply to do a placement at the Savoy hotel but Beckley urges them to apply at least three months before they sit their A levels.
Some of the students find the hotel a little intimidating because of its reputation for high standards. Despite this, the Savoy tour is the best part of the day for most.
Finally, it's back on the campaign bus and off to Leith's School of Food and Wine. The students' attention is beginning to wane at this stage of the day, so it's a quick walk round the kitchens and a short presentation on what the school does. But the students find the atmosphere too hectic to be appealing.
It has been a long day and the only thing left to do is to find out the students' impressions of what they've seen.
Chris Sheppardson, director of recruitment agency Portfolio International, steps in here. All 12 students are clearly bowled over by the Savoy for the quality of its rooms, and the Langham Hilton for its variety of restaurants. "One final thing, what are you looking for in a career?" he asks.
The resounding answer is "money", and things aren't looking so good for the campaign until one voice pipes up from the back: "Job satisfaction." So maybe it hasn't all been in vain.
