Kurt Bredenbeck, a former banker and founder of the Hoxton hotel in London, has revealed plans to staff his new Shoreditch hotel with recruits from homelessness charity Shelter.
Up to 50 homeless people a year will be paid while they are taught key workplace requirements such as good timekeeping, presentation and customer service during six to nine months of training, according to the London Evening Standard.
Trainees will also be taught front-of-house skills, as well as cleaning and laundry, as part of study for formal hotel qualifications.
Bredenbeck said he was inspired to launch the £4m plan after working voluntarily in a homeless shelter in Islington. He said he hoped that everyone who went through the scheme would go on to get a job in the hotel industry.
Bredenbeck will find his recruits via the Skylight Café, which is run by Crisis in Spitalfields and staffed by former or currently homeless people.
The new hotel is expected to have 40-45 rooms and will be run on a not-for-profit basis. Bredenbeck has not yet secured a site but is in talks to buy a brownfield site from Transport for London near the East London Line with the aim of opening in 2013.
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By Neil Gerrard
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