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I'm Jo Morgan. I work for Barcelo UK, I'm their Quality Standards and Training Officer.
The main part of my role is actually looking after training for the company,
organising the relevant training courses and a big part of that is developing people within our business
and for that we work with VT Training as our NVQ provider.
We started the Apprentice Chefs scheme because we recognised that there was a skill gap, particularly among young chefs,
where they couldn't see, coming into a kitchen,
how they would get from a Pot Washer or Commis Chef to being Head Chef.
Because a lot of people these days don't follow the traditional College City and Guilds route,
what we wanted to do was give them the opportunity to develop themselves whilst working for us
and actually grow our own chefs.
So we're not going outside to try and bring new people in,
we've actually got people who have worked within our business, understand our values
and we've actually helped to support them to gain qualifications.
We've really seen the young chefs develop.
Some of them came in with little or no qualifications from school,
having a love for food but not really knowing what to do with it.
Now, we're seeing them very confidently making dishes in the kitchen, speaking to their assessors with a lot more knowledge.
The apprenticeship really helps people in a broader sense as well.
They not only have to concentrate on the industry-recognised side of their qualification and their professional cookery,
but what we also do is develop their Key Skills, so they have to have a level of numeracy and English,
which for some of our young apprentices is fantastic because English isn't their first language.
So it's actually helping them develop their overall broader skills
and giving them the opportunity to meet people within the industry.
Vocational training really gives people the opportunity to earn whilst they learn.
So, particularly for people with young families, people who are not quite sure what they want to do with their lives,
or people that want to make a career change,
it gives them a great opportunity to actually get a qualification
where they don't have to come away from the workplace and go to college.
Vocational training really adds value to a business.
At a time when everybody is very cost conscious, to actually be able
to secure Government funding for young people to gain qualifications
not only helps you develop your people and gives you a much more skilled, confident workforce,
but also it allows you, as an employer, to really get that sense of developing people
and growing your business from within.