Tourism and Hospitality Skills Boost

Finding (and keeping) staff and volunteers with the right skill set is vital for delivering the high-quality experiences we offer in our county. However, a recent Visit Kent survey showed that 22% of attractions in the county have experienced challenges with staff and volunteer recruitment.

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding from the Helping Hands Fund from Kent County Council to deliver a sector-specific skills boost programme. The programme of activity is designed to help with the increasing problems with recruitment and retention within our industry at a local level, with activities including:

• Working with local Further Education (FE) colleges to develop tailored training programmes for job seekers
• Development of an online tourism talent hub that displays vacancies as well as support and information for attracting people into the industry
• Help for businesses to recruit and support staff with disabilities
• Development of a tourism & hospitality volunteer network with dedicated industry-specific training

We’ll be sharing more information on the activity over the coming months but in the meantime, here’s how you can get involved…

Step 1 - Join our skills network!

We are establishing a network of people responsible for recruitment within tourism and hospitality businesses across the county. We’ll work with this network to share ideas, best practices and information on getting involved in the activity as part of this programme.

If you or a colleague from your HR department would like to be part of the Skills Network, then please get in touch! 

Join the Skills Network here.

Step 2 - Tell us your staffing & volunteer needs

Have you had trouble recruiting staff with the right skills and experience? Are you struggling to find volunteers? To help us better understand the recruitment needs we have within the industry in Kent, please complete the survey below. We’ll be sharing this information with the local colleges so we can start to work collaboratively to develop skills programmes tailored to the needs of our industry. Feel free to pass this on to a relevant colleague within your company.

Complete the survey here.