Zia Lucia launches 'pizza school' to tackle staff shortages

London restaurant group Zia Lucia is the latest hospitality operator to launch an in-house training scheme to tackle staff shortages.

The six-week ‘pizza school' will run at its Boxpark Wembley site with guaranteed employment for participants upon completion.

It will be open to between five and seven chefs and is planned to launch in September, though dates are yet to be confirmed.

Zia Lucia founders Gianluca D'Angelo and Claudio Vescovo said they are struggling to find staff and dedicated pizza chefs for their five London restaurants and are trying to encourage more people into the profession.

They said: "Pizzaiolo has been historically an art as opposed to a job. People tend to learn the art of pizza-making very early when they are still young, especially when your parents own a pizzeria. It is a very rewarding profession and the learning curve is very steep."

Office for National Statistics data shows the number of job vacancies in hospitality hit a record high between May and July this year, with 117,000 roles left unfilled.

Several hospitality groups and chefs have launched their own training schemes in a bid to attract new recruits, including D&D London, the Devonshire Hotels and Restaurants Group and Simon Rogan.

This week the Scottish Hospitality Group urged the government to introduce a migrant visa scheme to fill vacancies it warned were putting the brakes on the sector's recovery.