£500,000 funding secured for development of Hospitality House

The Hospitality Guild has secured 75% of the funding required to develop an innovative centre of excellence, thanks to a £500,000 donation from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

Known as Hospitality House, the centre aims to drive customer service and skills training across the hospitality and retail sectors. The funding from the SFA was secured in partnership with the National Skills Academy for Retail.

Hospitality House will use ground-breaking IT and audio-visual technology to host a range of training events and deliver training remotely to people throughout the hospitality and retail sectors. The end-user will only need access to a computer with a standard internet connection to take advantage of these facilities.

Suzy Jackson, executive director of the Hospitality Guild, said that the funds from the SFA provide a fantastic start in the development of Hospitality House, and that she was now working with industry to generate the additional investment needed through match funding.

"With the SFA funding and a further £250,000 already committed from leading industry employers and suppliers including Hilton, Compass Group UK & Ireland, Electrolux, Conti and Heineken, we have secured 75% of the funds needed to develop Hospitality House, but we now need to focus on securing the remainder of the funding to bring this fantastic opportunity to fruition.

"In only its first year, the Hospitality Guild is already making significant progress. The call from industry for 'one voice for professional development' has been overwhelming and an agenda which 23 professional bodies have aligned with. We can deliver better trained and qualified people and improve the image of hospitality by working together. What Hospitality House does is allow us to bring all of this ambition under one roof and support that across the service sector.

"The combination of seminar, meeting rooms and office spaces, a retail skills shop, and a training and demonstration kitchen, bar and reception area, provides a great training venue with the real advantage of the technology that allows us to reach businesses across the country."

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