Our job-creating industry deserves more money for training

Declan Swan (Caterer, 22 February, page 22) emphasises the anomalies in the Government's approach to the funding of college courses in catering and hospitality subjects. The British Hospitality Association fully supports his argument that the present points system unfairly discriminates against the industry's case for more equitable treatment, as no other industry offers such a range of job opportunities, at all levels, to all types of people.

College courses are an essential means of providing these people with the necessary skills, yet hospitality courses are being abandoned because they receive less funding than those in other industries, such as hairdressing.

All those concerned about this issue - which must be every employer in the industry - should support the Hospitality Training Foundation's campaign and, even more, should write to their local MP and to the Department for Education & Employment itself. Only through a concerted industry effort will we be able to persuade the Government to provide the level of funding the industry merits.

Bob Cotton, Chief Executive, British Hospitality Association, London.

It is a curious fact that the issue of Britain needing a skilled workforce to compete globally is at the forefront of political rhetoric, while the real-life situation is that hospitality, the UK's second fastest-growing industry, has been banded at the bottom of all occupational sectors when it comes to Government support for work-based learning. It is hard to figure out not only how it is expected that a chef can be trained for 20% less than a hairdresser but also why it is not recognised how critical hospitality is to the entire tourism industry.

The absurdity of this is illustrated by looking at the manufacturers of pre-prepared meals for supermarkets. The chefs, who need to gain the expertise to choose, blend, prepare and cook dishes to a standard that competes against other supermarket brands, attract the lowest level of funding support. Downstairs on the factory floor, those who are simply stirring industrial vats with outsize spoons and packing them for shelf life will be entitled to 50% more because they fall into the manufacturing sector.

As was pointed out by Forbes Mutch (Caterer, 22 February, page 19), the crisis facing the industry requires a commitment to staff training and development by employers. It also requires recognition by the Government of the real costs for delivering the training.

NM Rowe, Chief Executive, Hotel & Catering Training Company, London.