If anyone knows what’s coming down the road for hospitality, it’s Kate Nicholls, CEO of UK Hospitality. In a new column for CLASS, she enlightens us about the spots on the horizon that could soon become the bigger picture

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But here we are. At the time, I’d just finished speaking about jobs and employment in hospitality, a priority of mine, where I’d been outlining a lot of what we’d been doing as

UK Hospitality, the sector’s trade body, to improve routes into the sector, break some of the stereotypes and appeal to homegrown talent.

A brilliant topic for my first column. Let’s come back to that. I’ve long been an admirer of Class and it’s a privilege to be asked to contribute regularly, so you’ll see my thoughts and, hopefully, insight every three months in these pages.

In my role as chief executive of UK Hospitality, I spend a lot of time travelling round the country to speak with our members and the most exciting parts of the job are finding new bars, hearing their stories and trying the new concoctions they’re so adept at rustling up.

That’s what our bar sector does so well. All the time, there are entrepreneurs who are springing up with new projects, concepts and menus. That vibrancy and sense of innovation is why the UK maintains its position as the world’s best country for bars, cocktails and bartending.

It’s fantastic for me to be able to show politicians about the huge investment that’s taking place in our bar sector and why it’s so important for communities, jobs and as an attraction for people to come to the UK.

Before I go on, let me explain a little about UK Hospitality for those who don’t know. We are the leading trade body for hospitality. That’s anything from bars, hotels, pubs and cafes to nightclubs, leisure parks, bowling alleys and contract caterers.

As head of the leading trade body for the sector, I go into bat for the things the sector needs to see. During Covid, that was furlough and other financial support. During the energy crisis, that was targeted business schemes to help with costs.

Now, as we head into a general election, we’ll be making the case to all parliamentary candidates about the strategic importance of our sector. We will be telling and showing them how hospitality creates places where people want to live, work and invest – something our bars embody so well – and why it has huge potential to go even further in what we deliver.

Workforce strategy

Of course, we need the people to be able to achieve that. So, to return to my intended topic for this column, I want to talk a bit about what we’re doing to create the next generation of bartenders.

A few years ago, with recruitment and retention remaining a big challenge for the sector, we published our hospitality workforce strategy to guide us through these challenges and future-proof the sector. Building the workforce of the future and getting young people interested in fun and exciting careers, like bartending, really means building the foundations to allow that to happen.

Part of it is setting up the infrastructure and the policy, which may sound boring but it’s really important. A lot of the decisions around skills, training and which sectors receive funding takes place at a local level. If bartending is to receive the attention it deserves, it needs local buy-in.

So, to that end, we’re including hospitality as part of local skills improvement plans and the

sector is now included in 21 out of 38 of these plans across the country. Work still to do but that means in those areas, we’re in at the ground floor to sell our sector and explain why being a bartender means you can earn an excellent salary, work in exciting places and unleash your creativity day-in, day-out.

You may think this sounds like a slow burn and, to an extent it is, but it’s important to get the foundations right to continue building success. Fundamentally, there are jobs for everyone in hospitality. Regardless of age, background, education or personal circumstances, everyone can find a home in hospitality. We have to shout about that more.

I have a role to play in that, UK Hospitality has a role to play in that, and you have a role to play in that too.

We’re all incredibly proud to work in this sector. Together, we can take that message far and wide to plant the seed of what’s possible with the bartenders of tomorrow. Owning your own bar, winning awards, travelling the world – these are all within reach as a bartender.

We’ll keep banging that drum to the public and politicians, and anyone else who will listen, to get the right support in place so that when I next bump into Hamish at a trade show we’ll be able to reflect on the continued success we’ve had to build these pathways to inspire the next generation of bartenders.