Hospitality skills boost to Redchurch Street
“I never thought that someone like me would be able to work in some of these hotels. I have to be really honest,” says Nicola (48), a single mother of three who previously worked in retail and as a domestic cleaner. “As a woman of colour, as someone who was born and raised in the East End, and coming from a hard background.”
“It’s been almost a lifeline,” says Natalie (47), also a mother of three who recently worked for NHS Test and Trace and, like Nicola, has been supported by Universal Credit. “I just felt so encouraged, which is just what you want after being stuck indoors for a long time and everything is sort of going sideways.”
Nicola and Natalie are graduates of Saira Hospitality, a pop-up training school that we recently welcomed to Redchurch Street, East London. For six weeks, over 60 students, most of whom live in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, unemployed for more than 12 months, the majority female, experienced a programme of ‘soft skills’ training, designed to develop the skills to work in the hospitality industry.
Labour shortages in UK hospitality are running high. It’s the sector of the economy hardest hit by the consequences of Brexit and the pandemic, facing the highest vacancy rate of any industry, according to the Office of National Statistics, and only one in five people surveyed say they would consider a role in the industry. What’s more, rates of participation in work are low, especially for older people, a great concern to experts looking for growth and prosperity in the economy post Covid.
““The feeling of ‘come on, we’re behind you and rallying’ is just phenomenal.””
The onRedchurch Community Interest Company partnered with Saira founder Harsha L’Acqua to welcome Saira’s UK debut. Using empty properties to promote innovation-led growth is one of many ways the not-for-profit is working to make Redchurch Street more relevant and useful to local people. onRedchurch provided financial support alongside Saira’s employer partners, which include The Hoxton, Nobu Hotel Portman Square, Montcalm and Town Hall Hotel & Apartments, owners of the Town Hall Hotel, Bethnal Green; and brokered Saira’s occupation of a large empty retail space, owned by Derwent London, one of onRedchurch’s partners, and leased by long-term Shoreditch-based architects Buckley Gray Yeoman.
More than half of Saira’s Redchurch School graduates have secured new jobs or been made an offer. The remaining 19 students are being interviewed for live vacancies with employer sponsors. And based on the success of its first programme, Saira is gearing up to launch their second school in London, with doors opening at the end of October.
For Natalie, the programme on Redchurch Street has been a great success. “I’ve got a job now with Citizen M,” she says. “You know, I’m so pleased. With Saira, the feeling of encouragement from everyone, the feeling of ‘come on, we’re behind you and rallying’ is just phenomenal. My work coach at the Job Centre is so happy too. She says I’ve found my calling.”
Click for more information on Saira and to apply to the Autumn programme