Fulfilling your potential, now and in the future.
Employers
An Employers’ guide to participation
These new Diplomas will give the next generation a real choice of studies to prepare for the future.
The Diplomas in Hospitality offer the best opportunity to encourage and help young people of all abilities to make their careers in this Industry.
The Diplomas will succeed because they are conceived and led by Employers, Colleges and Schools working together.
So what are these Diplomas?
Diplomas are a part of a new and exciting initiative to introduce into schools from age 14, an alternative to a purely academic course of studies.
They are being developed for all industries including Hospitality. Diplomas are not intended to prepare “job ready” employees but rather to give a broad based introduction to the world of work with studies relating to each area of the industry in question.
Diplomas will be offered at:
- level 1/Foundation equivalent to studying 5 GCSEs
- level 2/Higher equivalent to studying 7 GCSEs and
- level 3/Advanced equivalent to studying 3 to 3 and a half A levels.
Students may continue to take selected academic or other subjects alongside the Diplomas and may choose go on to University with an Advanced (level 3) Diploma.
What is going on in the Hospitality Industry?
People 1st, on behalf of the Hospitality industry, has been leading the work on the Hospitality Diploma development since the beginning of 2006 consulting widely with the industry and the world of education about the content of the Diplomas, and using an expert panel drawn from senior employers across the industry together with senior staff from Schools, Colleges and Universities to help agree the content and design of the Diplomas.
Diplomas will introduce students to the Hospitality Industry and will develop craft, support and supervisory skills. Each Diploma also places great emphasis on the development of life skills such as team working, communication, creative thinking and self management; something employers have consistently asked for. Diplomas are each designed to be delivered in a way that is demanding but exciting and interesting at the same time. Diplomas will be a challenge for students; they are not going to be easy.
The Hospitality Diploma provides a real opportunity to prepare and develop young people who are thinking about a career in the Hospitality Industry. The full content and a lot more information may be found on the Diploma in Hospitality website, www.hospitalitydiploma.co.uk Also go to www.dcsf.gov.uk/14-19 and click on “I’m an Employer”
The delivery of Diplomas is to be rolled out over several years with the first five Diplomas on offer from September 2008. The Hospitality Diplomas will be launched in September 2009.
Diplomas can not be run by schools on their own, but will be run by Consortia Each Consortium will typically include Schools, FE Colleges, training providers, and a number of participating Employers, some will also include Higher Education establishments. Local employer participation is to be part and parcel of Diploma delivery and is seen as essential to a successful application.
Get Involved
The areas where employers can support are:
1. Join a Consortium
If you have not already been invited to get involved and would like to know more, ring the 14 -19 Advisor at your local County/City Education Department and ask for details of local Consortia who are intending to deliver the Diploma in Hospitality or contact the local Education Business Partnership. Alternatively, ring the Head of the Hospitality Department at your local College.
2. Commit to Diploma support
Local Employers will share the support of the delivery of the Diplomas, and for Hospitality this will be from September 09.
Involvement may include the following:
2.1 Staff Development
Specialist Training and materials will be given to teachers but employers may be asked to provide further insights and exposure to the Industry as a part of staff development. Days out in the Industry will be an invaluable experience and source of materials for teachers
2.2 Careers Help
Employers can support both teaching and careers staff in helping students to choose which of the Diplomas is right for them and in discussing with students on the Diploma courses the attractive range of career routes on offer in the Hospitality Industry.
To help, careers packs are available from www.springboarduk.org.uk;
2.3 Classroom Help
Employers may agree to provide classroom inputs from time to time to support learning. Bringing the Industry to life in the classroom will be of great help to the teaching staff as well as providing development opportunities for young managers from the Industry.
2.4 Workplace Help
The provision of work experience is an essential and important feature of each of the Diplomas.
The next section outlines the important factors that go to making a good work experience for the student and for the employer.
3. Work Placement
Each of these Diplomas will include a minimum of 10 days Work Placement.
For most students, it will be their first experience of the world of work and of the Industry and, of course, first impressions count.
Most employers will recognise the basics for a good work experience along the following lines:
- agree all the detail in advance with the school and make sure that the student knows what to expect and what will be required
- give a good welcome and introduction for the new student
- provide a friendly structured environment
- provide a buddy, an outgoing employee of similar age, who can help settle the student into the work environment
- help the student to understand the importance of quality of product and of service. Providing such an experience for the student as “being the customer” is one way of getting this message across
- set tasks with learning goals and with measurable outcomes. Teachers can help with this
- provide breadth of experience by involving the student in several tasks like health and safety checks, fire drill, pre-service bar prep, a stock take, till closure, a job interview, event planning, food costing, even cash flow or budget preparation. Students need to experience the breadth of expertise needed in the Industry in order to see for themselves the opportunities on offer
- give the student quality time at the end of the attachment to provide feedback on performance, not only on tasks assigned but also performance in team work, self management and communication. Encourage the student to prepare and ask questions about the Industry and the breadth of opportunity which it offers.
Information and detailed guidance on the provision of work experience for students is available from Springboard www.springboarduk.org.uk People 1st dedicated website www.hospitalitydiploma.co.uk also provides guidance on work experience for Diploma learners.
The Diploma in Hospitality demands really good learning experiences across all its component parts and across the range and variety of delivery programmes associated with the Diploma. For its credibility and effectiveness those experiences that are associated with the workplace have to be designed, planned and provided to a particularly high standard. Although work experience offers opportunities to discover what working in the industry is like, it needs to exploit the learning opportunities far beyond that relatively limited objective. It can and should also assist in the delivery, and indeed assessment of the learners developing knowledge, understanding and, most importantly, personal and sector-related skills.
The workplace is also a rich, stimulating and natural environment for learners to develop, practice and demonstrate the required functional and personal, learning and thinking Skills which together make up a set of employability skills which equip learners to prosper in any sector.
Employer involvement in making work experience credible and valuable engenders real and very practical “engagement”, which is an important ‘Gateway’ criterion. Soundings taken during the Diploma development process, indicate that employers really do want to engage with consortia partners to make work experience all it can be, to the advantage of all involved. This has been particularly evident in the work with and feedback from all the employers who have been involved in the development of the Diploma in Hospitality.
Work experience is a very public aspect of the programme where providers’ planning, co-ordination and monitoring are all very visible to professionals in the industry. The public credibility of those involved in designing and implementing the Diploma therefore hinges, to some extent on the quality of work experience and how well it meshes with other aspects of the programme.
Regulatory Requirements
There is a regulatory requirement that all Diploma learners, regardless of level and line of learning, are engaged in at least ten days ‘work experience’. A more appropriate interpretation of this requirement is that learners are involved in a minimum of ten days work placement ie spend at least ten days of their Diploma course in a real work setting outside of their normal place of study. For the Diploma in Hospitality, learners would be expected to exceed this number with deliverers undertaking a more expansive, innovative and stimulating approach to how learners develop their understanding of the world of work through a range of ‘experiences of the world of work’, of which ten days of work placement would be but a component part.
Planning and Delivering ‘Work Experience’
The regulatory requirement of a minimum of ten days of ‘work experience’ (ie work placement) should therefore not be seen as an appropriate criteria, or some form of benchmark, for judging the adequacy of learners’ exposure to and consequent understanding of the world of work and specifically the Hospitality industry.
Work ‘experience’ for learners should embrace all of the following:
- fixed term, regular and/or short term attachments to a hospitality establishment shadowing, assisting and/or performing work-related tasks
- access to a specified hospitality establishment or employer throughout the term of the programme for advice, support and guidance (via meetings, email exchanges, telephone conversations, written questions, etc.)
- researching hospitality establishments and those working in them by regular visits and discussions with employers and industry professionals
- listening to and answering questions of speakers from the hospitality industry
- participating in work simulations and role plays in the principal place of learning, perhaps associated by visiting employers
- access and use of industry specific resources and materials
- having an industry mentor
….. among others.
It is absolutely vital, as stated elsewhere in the document, that learners experience the industry and all its components in a practical or applied context with a minimum of class-based learning. This is particularly apposite when introducing learners to the Level One Diploma, hence the relatively heavy weighting towards the practical topic for food preparation and serving.
For employers, it is vital that learners are provided with appropriate work-based activities that match the needs and aspirations of the learners as well as having a focus on the demands of the Diploma content.
For learners, work experience:
- is a time for practical learning from the professionals - people who do the job day-in and day-out
- is a fantastic opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge
- is a safe setting in which to practice and develop their skills
- provides opportunities to gather evidence that they have or are acquiring the relevant general and sector-specific knowledge, understanding and skills to meet the demands of the Diploma qualification
- creates perfect opportunities to apply their skills and knowledge in real world situations to show that they “really have got what it takes to make a career in this fantastic industry.”
Please see also the employers’ guide to work experience given below for further information and guidance.
People 1st is planning to produce series of work experience guides for those topics most appropriate for work experience. The following is an example of one for Topic 2.4 Working in a Hospitality Team.
Assessing the Diploma and the Role of the Employer
The work experience component, whilst compulsory, will not be formally assessed. However, as stated above, work experience, and specifically in the form of work placement, provides many stimulating and appropriate opportunities for learners to develop their Hospitality knowledge, understanding and skills and to have these recognised and commented on by employers. Employers are of course ideally placed to review and comment upon the very skills that they are looking for in effective employees in the Hospitality industry, particularly skills in customer service, presentation, communication and team work. It is both desirable and perfectly possible, that employers can assess learners’ competencies in a range of relevant practical scenarios and complete something like a ‘confirmation of achievement’ form, which can be placed in the learner’s ‘file of achievement’. This will detail how they performed, what skills were demonstrated and importantly, which particular aspects of the unit learning outcomes were being tackled by the learner and how successful they were in achieving the required performance criteria.
This use of some form of formal input by employers, through the work experience/placement component of the Diploma, means that:
- work experience/placement contributes formally to the achievement profile of learners
- involves employers more formally and explicitly in the Diploma delivery and assessment process
- provides a sharper focus for learners in the planning and approach to their work experience/placement (having some form of summative employer feedback)
- provides a sharper focus for employers in planning the work experience/placement with an explicit learning outcome to focus on
The new Diplomas will give the next generation a real choice of studies to prepare for the future.
Diplomas in Hospitality offer the best opportunity to encourage and help young people of all abilities to make their Careers in this Industry.
Diplomas will succeed because they are conceived and led by Employers, Colleges and Schools working together.
Please add your support to this important initiative.
