Why Hospitality & Tourism Sector?

As the economic downturn continues it seems that the Hospitality and Tourism sector is weathering the storm rather better than most.

Yet, this sector is experiencing major challenges in attracting appropriately skilled people. A recent report by People 1st, the organisation charged with identifying the skills needs of the sector, highlighted a lack of skills in three main areas that were holding the sector back from reaching its full potential, namely management and leadership skills, customer service skills and chef skills. (For this reason alone Careers teachers need to inform their pupils of the potential opportunities that currently exist now and in the future).


At the end of 2008 a Future Skills Action Group undertook research in how to address this shortcoming. The report highlighted the fact that more needs to be done to sell the benefits of working in the Hospitality and Tourism sector to the public. With this in mind, the following actions are being taken:


• Regional Career events will be organised, to encourage young people to consider a career in the sector;

• People 1st will be expanding the existing UKSP web based skills and recruitment site www.uksp.co.uk; and

• People 1st will be recruiting a number of employers to act as Ambassadors to participate in promotional activities. (More in our Post 16 Blog)

With all this activity going on and a thriving sector, there is no doubt that this is an exciting time for the Hospitality and Tourism industry in Northern Ireland and more importantly for our young people who are considering a career in this Sector.