Source of apprentices

On a rainy afternoon in Teesside, a classroom full of 14-year-old schoolgirls is awaiting its latest careers talk. Three of the industry's leading lights have gathered here to persuade them to choose hospitality. It is the first leg of the campaign trail for "Let's Make it First Choice", a drive to attract the country's brightest school-leavers.

The organisers couldn't have picked a better place to start. Teesside High School is an independent girls' school which hovers near the top of the league table for the North-east of England.

One hundred per cent of pupils go on to university. In the words of one of their teachers: "Our girls nearly always want to be brain surgeons, doctors, dentists and psychiatrists."

In fact, a career in hospitality is the last thing on the girls' minds, and it doesn't take our hosts long to find this out.

"Anyone considered a career in hotel and catering?" asks Chris Sheppardson, director of recruitment agency Portfolio International, the founder and organiser of the campaign. There is a collective shaking of heads. They are going to be tough nuts to crack.

But Sheppardson has thought through his tactics carefully.

He calls up his first speaker, Sean Spillane, general manager of Leith's at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and formerly with Gleneagles. It's no coincidence that Spillane is 28, dark-haired and has a soft Northern Ireland accent; when you're dealing with teenage girls, every last bit of image marketing helps.

Their eyes light up as Spillane takes the floor. He gets off to a good start: almost half of them have heard of Gleneagles. Spillane begins his story about how he started work there as a waiter and worked his way up to country club manager. And he is good at getting down to their level.

"I couldn't wait to finish university. All I wanted to do was to start earning lots of money," he tells them. Then comes the attractive bit: "I decided to create a position for myself, as duty manager for food and beverage. I was swanning around in a dinner suit and everything, I thought ‘This must be what it's all about'."

Now for the glamour: "You do get the opportunity to meet some very interesting people. I met film stars, racing drivers, comedians…"

Now that he has their attention, he cleverly peppers his talk with reasons why catering is a good career move: "It's not just about being a chef or a waiter, there are opportunities in retail management, marketing, estate management. And the last thing you are is an island trying to develop you own management technique and style. There are always other people there, it's wonderful for that."

Spillane tells them how his move to the EICC has given him all-round experience: "I'm a combination of all of these things that I mentioned - accountant, public relations person, marketing person. I'm a florist, greengrocer, equestrian manager and retail manager and I'm still 28. Now, any questions?"

After a 10-minute presentation, the pupils are starting to look disinterested. But it's soon obvious that they are taking in every last thing - and they're not about to have the wool pulled over their eyes.

"Doesn't it take up too much of your time?" asks one pupil. Spillane tells her:"I get lots of time to myself. The hospitality and catering industry is becoming smarter and smarter. We realise we have to attract good people. The business is changing and some perceptions are incorrect."

Another says: "It's all fine and dandy to say how wonderful the job is, but there must be a bad side. What are the drawbacks?" Like a good politician, Spillane tactfully avoids the issue. "The single biggest drawback for me is getting the message through to you to consider it,"he says.

The second speaker is Jackie Cupper, regional director for the northern division of contract caterer Aramark. "Contract catering tends to have not so much of a glamorous reputation," she tells them. No matter; Cupper has other ways of getting them interested:

"We provide hotel services for the International Fire Training Centre at Teesside Airport, and there are some very hunky firemen."

There are giggles all round, and she has their attention.

Cupper's trump card is her own success: at the age of 27 she was made an operations director, in charge of the East Midlands. Today, aged 39, she is in charge of the whole of the North of England. And all this from someone who originally wanted to teach domestic science.

She stresses the more sociable hours enjoyed in the contract catering industry, and she tells them it's female-friendly: "There is no glass ceiling. We have five regional directors, three of them female."

Sheppardson takes to the floor again and talk turns to qualifications. "I look at CVs all the time and I very rarely look at people's qualifications. The key factor is personality," he says. This is a staggering thought for a roomful of girls who have had it drummed into them for years that qualifications count.

Sensing that they are still wary, Sheppardson does a Major and Mawhinney. In shirt sleeves, sitting on a desk and swinging his legs back and forth, he goes for the casual approach and starts trying to rally the troops with talk of his own career progression. After a degree in sociology, a degree in hotel and catering and some time as a chartered accountant ("Accountancy isn't hard, it's just boring"), he tells them how he became deputy manager of a hotel with 45 staff at the age of 24. "It set me alight. Everyone can sit here and get advice about what is good for you but the key element is what will make you happy and give you fun."

Talk turns to running your own business and the girls start talking excitedly about TGI Friday's and Planet Hollywood. The glamour message is getting through. But one level-headed pupil points out: "There's been fashion, music, all the restaurants have already done it. It would be quite hard to come up with something original."

The three speakers smile patiently; it's one thing targeting bright kids, but you leave yourself open to their bright observations too.

The bell rings, Cupper shivers in memory of her schooldays, and it's time for the next class, this time 15-year-olds. There may be only a year between the two groups, but as far as the speakers are concerned it might as well be a generation. They find themselves having to tackle the sort of feigned boredom that drives parents and teachers mad.

Sheppardson begins again: "Anyone every considered a career in hotels and catering?" This time there are a few nods. "What's important to you in a career?" he asks. And they all shout: "Money!" Sheppardson asks what they consider to be a good salary: "A million a year", "£200,000 a year", "£50,000".

Everyone in the room knows that catering isn't going to bring them such vast sums of money, so the speakers try another tactic. "By 2000 the catering industry is going to be the largest employer in the UK. That's why we need so many new people," says Sheppardson. The girls are suitably silenced.

But it's much harder to keep this class's attention. Sheppardson asks if any of them have been to TGI Friday's and one pupil pipes up: "It's a rip-off, it's too expensive". Another chips in: "It's good if someone else is paying for it."

Perhaps sensing defeat, Sheppardson decides to hammer home the message about salaries, knowing that money is all they seem interested in: "People tell you catering is poorly paid and of course it is at the start, but so is accountancy, law, medicine, journalism." Spillane adds: "It's more important that you're dedicated and believe in what you're doing. Believe me, money will follow."

Afterwards, the speakers admit they are disappointed with the reception they received from the second group. But they seem at least to have set the 14-year-olds thinking. "At the beginning of the talk I wanted to be a lawyer but I want to be a caterer now. I want to go into airline catering," says Sarah Wesson afterwards, while her friend says she wants to start up her own restaurant. Antje Bland still wants to be a vet, but admits: "I didn't realise there was that much opportunity in hospitality." And Aysha Majid, whose father runs a health club nearby, admits she has changed her mind about the industry. "My father gets so much stress," she explains. "But now I've thought about it it sounds good."

Our triumvirate of speakers have had food for thought. They have also learned their own lessons from their afternoon at school. During a tea-break chat with two of the teachers, they discover that parents are often a big barrier when it comes to children's career choices. If they really want to hammer home the message, say the teachers, they should talk to parents as well. Sheppardson resolves to come back to Teesside High School's parents night next March. "We should be aiming at them too," he admits.