Shop window of opportunity

SEVEN months ago, Phillip Pidduck, a coal miner from Nottingham, travelled to Bournemouth looking for work and, trying his luck, visited the new Hotel and Catering Jobshop.

A week later he was working as a conference and garage porter at the five-star Royal Bath Hotel, on the cliff above Bournemouth sandy beach.

Helen Chapman, personnel manager of the Royal Bath, said Mr Pidduck had been through a number of retraining schemes in Nottingham but had found it difficult getting a job in the Midlands. "But he's absolutely brilliant and is made for this industry. Once, Job Centres had a poor reputation, but now hotels realise that Job Centres can do a lot for them," she said.

Since it opened in November last year, the Hotel and Catering Jobshop in Bournemouth, one of four such specialist centres in the country, has placed more than 1,000 people into jobs in the industry.

In the 1980s Bournemouth had a hotel and catering job centre but it operated differently. Sensing there was a need for a specialisedservice, the Job Centre in Bournemouth sought views from the industry and then gained additional funding from the Employment Service to expand its premises into a former tile shop next door.

The format is like a private-sector agency, with the status of each job tracked on computer.

There are seven job centres in the Bournemouth and Poole area and all supply hotel and catering vacancies to the central specialist branch.

According to Lyn Heussi, manager of the Jobshop, the early response from the hotel and catering industry was supportive. "It is up to us now to fulfill its needs," she said.

While in the past Bournemouth hotels and restaurants have been largely summer season employers, according to the Jobshop, the town now operates around the year.

Bournemouth was hit hard by the recession and an alarming number of its hotels went into receivership, but the town is now picking up again. During March alone the Jobshop carried around 700 job vacancies. Each week the Jobshop displays around150 hotel and catering vacancies.

Mrs Heussi said there was "so much work in the hotel industry that we are using every initiative to try to get unemployed people to take advantage of the opportunities".

"We kept getting vacancies for silver service waiters but they wanted trained people. There were a lot of good full-time jobs in this position so we thought it would be worthwhile setting up a course for it. Because we were able to identify a skills shortage we set up a course with the Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education."

Dorset Skills Training, the local Training and Enterprise Council, funded the course for people who had been out of work for more than six months. It was a 12-week programme that consisted of 10 weeks' day release and two weeks of college-based training. The first course, which finished recently, trained 12 people and a second course is due to start in September.

The Jobshop also runs a "work trial" scheme, in which an employer takes on a potential recruit for a three-week period. Of the 1,000 people placed into work by the Jobshop, around 30 went through this project.

The Jobshop also has a small fund to help long-term unemployed people buy uniforms or chef's knives.

Other help is available from Dorset Skills Training, which has funding for employers to take on long-term unemployed people who need training.

Mike Hayes, regional manager of Bournemouth Job Centres, said it was worthwhile for the Government to give grants if it resulted in reducing the number of unemployed on the register.

The reputation of the Jobshop has begun to spread. Hotel and restaurant groups from London to the Channel Islands have sent recruitment teams to it.

A typical company would advertise that it is recruiting in the area and then use the Jobshop interview rooms and facilities. This service is free for employers.

While it is not a recruitment agency, the Jobshopis open to anyone looking for a job, whether they are in work or not. Its vacancies are displayed on boards and there is also general information available, using the Springboard computer software story boards from London.

However, its management stressed that it was not competing with private recruitment agencies. "All we are trying to do is to help thehospitality industry and get more people into work," said Mrs Heussi.

Bournemouth and Poole has a high level of unemployment. There are about 21,000 people out of work in the area. Last year the Job Centre had around 6,000 job vacancies in total.

Next month representatives from the leading Bournemouth hotels will meet with the Jobshop staff to discuss ways of improving the relationship and bringing more unemployed people into the industry. o