New Hotel Employment Academy set to encourage young people into sector

Belfast City Council has teamed up with the Hastings Grand Central Hotel Belfast and the Dalata Hotel Group’s Maldron Hotel Belfast City, both of which are due to open next year – to launch a new Hotel Employment Academy.

The initiative aims to help the two hotels recruit almost 200 staff and is open to anyone living in the Belfast City Council area who is currently out of work, or works less than 16 hours a week.

The first Academy will start in January, with others taking place early in 2018. They will involve two weeks of intensive training in areas such as customer care, food safety, health and safety and manual handling, as well as practical experience in working in a hotel. Offering the skills needed for specific posts within the two new city centre hotels, everyone who completes the training will be guaranteed an interview.

A series of drop-in information sessions are being held at venues across the city next week to provide potential applicants with more information on the scheme. Representatives from the Hastings Grand Central Hotel Belfast and the Dalata Hotel Group’s Maldron Hotel Belfast City will be on hand to discuss the various job opportunities. Representatives from various training organisations also will be there to explain the application process for the academies.

The Hotel Employment Academy is supported by the Department for Communities, the Department for the Economy, Tourism NI, the Lemis+ project, which is funded by the Northern Ireland European Social Fund, and the Department for the Economy’s Bridge to Employment training programme.