What Your Hospitality Business Can Do for Young People

The hospitality industry has a great opportunity to create a trained, youthful workforce that empowers young people to find stability in their lives.

Already, the hospitality industry is a major employer of people aged 15 to 24. The industry as a whole has the capacity to provide thousands of jobs for this age group. And every hospitality business big or small, including yours, can do its part.

Your Chance to Set Young People up for Life

With your hospitality business, you have the chance to skill youths up in ways that will serve them for the rest of their professional lives.

Hospitality work is the perfect training ground to teach young people soft skills, such as how to:

• work in a team
• communicate effectively
• problem solve
• take responsibility
• provide exceptional customer service
• remain professional

Your business can help show young people how the skills learnt in hospitality can be easily transferred to many other career opportunities, whether in hospitality or other industries.

It’s your chance to help create a powerful workforce that will boost young people’s confidence and provide them the stability they need in life.

But how can you offer young people more than just a fleeting job experience? There are many ways you can mitigate high turnover and build a quality employee team of young people.

Show them a career path

Many young people view hospitality as a kind of half-way job rather than a meaningful career opportunity. That’s one of the reasons why so many businesses see such a high staff turnover.

But unlike many other industries, the hospitality industry provides plenty of opportunities to promote from within. Put an advancement program in place so young employees don’t feel trapped in a lower-paying, entry-level job.

Show your young employees how you plan to invest in their future and they’re bound to stay with you longer.

Offer them job shadowing opportunities and internships

Hospitality also provides a great way for young employees with little academic background to find an entry-level job with reliable pay and safe working conditions.

Your business can play an important role in building up their professional repertoire. Why not incorporate a job-shadowing program or internship into your business model?

Target high school aged children with these opportunities to show them how broad work in hospitality can be. They can learn about finance and accounting, customer services, maintenance, kitchen work, marketing, management, and so much more.

You could also decide to participate in the Federal Government’s Youth Jobs PaTH scheme. This youth employment scheme provides incentives to hospitality businesses offering internship placements for young people.

These experiences give young people an understanding of what’s involved in managing a hospitality business and provide hands-on learning that can build their confidence.