Top hoteliers share hospitality careers advice

Top hoteliers will be sharing careers advice to students at a virtual forum on 21 April, organised by the Institute of Hospitality (IoH), urging young people to keep their faith in the sector as the UK prepares to exit national lockdown.

The 90-minute live webinar, called Keep the Faith in Hospitality, has been created as part of the IoH's Passion 4 Hospitality programme, designed to inspire students to pursue management and leadership careers in hospitality.

The webinar will feature Scott Harper FIH, chief operating officer of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, as keynote speaker. He will be joined by a panel including Stuart Bowery FIH, general manager of the JW Marriott Grosvenor House; Sally Beck FIH, general manager of the Royal Lancaster Hotel; Matt Brierly, director of UK openings at Locke Hotels; Adrian Ellis FIH, general manager of the Lowry Hotel; and Alison Lees, area director of human resources at Marriott UK.

Since the Keep the Faith series was launched last year – to counter the negative impact of the pandemic on young people hoping to join an industry marked by large-scale furloughs and redundancies – more than 300 students have tuned into the webinars. 

"Any student who attends our Keep the Faith in Hospitality – Student Forum will come away not just with nuggets of up-to-date information on the state of hospitality, straight from the mouths of those who operate and run our multibillion-pound industry, but with the experience of being in the room with powerful people who make things happen," says Peter Ducker FIH, CEO of the IoH. "It’s an inspiring proposition."

"Our keynote speakers and panellists are the very people responsible for making sure our industry is open for business after lockdown; they will be the people hiring and recruiting, and they are the types of leaders who will be influencing the policies that will see our industry revert to the fastest growing sector in the UK. I can’t emphasise strongly enough how important the lessons students take away from these webinars will be in helping to shape the decisions they make on their future careers."

Keep the Faith in Hospitality – Student Forum  will be held on Wednesday 21 April 2021 from 2-3.30pm. Attendance is free of charge, but attendees are asked to register online here.