Author: Lucy Purdy / Source: Positive News
A top London hotel and a charity have launched a school where homeless people are taught hospitality skills to get them ready for work. Lucy Purdy checks in
Just a few hundred metres apart in London’s bustling Belgravia, two buildings have been sheltering people for decades.
At The Goring hotel it’s been well-to-do guests – frequently royalty – and at The Passage centre, vulnerable and homeless men and women, up to 200 every day.Last year, the two joined forces to launch Hotel School. The main course? A hands-on, 10-week series of classes and one-to-one sessions, in which homeless and vulnerable people are taught hospitality skills. As well as introducing them to work in service, kitchen, housekeeping and reception, Hotel School serves up work experience placements with some of London’s best hotels and restaurants. There are also introductions to potential employers, and mentoring to help students stick at jobs once they secure them.
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“People working in hospitality are real team players,” says Hotel School co-founder Jeremy Goring. “It’s a business in which anyone can be a success: there are so many different roles. But hospitality has a chronic shortfall of staff. The Passage deals with helping people who don’t have work, don’t have homes and who need to get their lives back on track. So putting those two worlds together was just obvious.”
Experienced college teachers deliver the course, and a who’s who of industry leaders, Michelin starred chefs, baristas, cocktail mixologists and more volunteer to lead masterclasses.
‘Headmistress’ Véronique Bonnefoy cut her teeth as head of training for Gordon Ramsay and so it’s no surprise that she is straight talking: “I’m quite hard on the students. My approach isn’t softly, softly, because the reality of…The post Suite dreams: checking in to Hotel School appeared first on FeedBox.