The data over the past 10 years tells a sobering story. Participation rates in hospitality and culinary courses at UK further education colleges have been steadily declining.

The number of apprenticeship starts has also dropped sharply, especially at the intermediate level, following the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017. Even for specific roles like commis chef and chef de partie, current achievement rates are alarmingly low, with only around 25-30% of apprentices completing their programmes. There are many reasons cited for this including changing employers or lack of employer support. What this really points up is a lack of flexibility within the overall apprenticeship model that does not allow for an apprentice to easily transfer to another employer.

The root cause of the disconnect is a growing misalignment between industry expectations and the realities of hospitality education programmes at all levels. Recent research by Ehotelier shows a glaring “gap” – where 96% of industry respondents feel education is not properly preparing students for careers in hospitality, compared to just 54% of educators. This disconnect has widened over the past 5 years.

Internationally hospitality employers feel that current curricula do not place enough emphasis on developing critical professional skills for roles like chefs and operational team members. 79% of industry respondents believe professional skill development will be extremely important going forward, but only 47% think educational institutions are adequately focused on this area.

There are concerns that entrenched attitudes and restrictions in curriculum design and flexibility are preventing hospitality programmes from adapting quickly enough to the rapidly changing realities of the industry. As comments from the respondents to the research put it. “Education is too slow for Industry…and we need a curriculum truly based on hospitality in the future” – it could have added “not the past”.

In a positive step, the UK government recently announced new measures to try to increase apprenticeship numbers and make training more affordable for businesses. From April 2024, apprenticeship training in small businesses will be fully funded for anyone up to age 21. Large employers will also be able to transfer up to 50% of their unspent apprenticeship levy funds to other companies, including SMEs, up from the current 25% maximum transfer.

While this new flexibility is welcome, it does not address the core issues of greater speed of response and flexibility nor the fundamental disconnect between what hospitality employers want and what educational institutions are delivering. As one survey respondent bluntly stated, “Schools and industry are poles apart.”

The pandemic has only exacerbated these issues by shifting the expectations and priorities of younger workers entering hospitality. They now place a much higher premium on work-life balance, and some are being deterred by the industry’s historically long hours and burnout culture.

Clearly, radical changes are needed in how we educate and train the next generation of hospitality talent. A shared vision, open communication channels, and mutual investment between industry and academia are critical to bridging this widening divide. One respondent stated, “A shared ambition, co-ownership, shared responsibilities, and mutual investments are necessary to bridge the gap”.

Without transformative action, the hospitality industry will face a severe talent drought as educational programmes struggle to recruit and the industry feels that the graduates, at all levels, are unprepared for professional realities. The time to reimagine hospitality education is now before this crisis becomes a catastrophe.

EUHOFA, The International Association of Hotel Schools, is holding a webinar on ‘Rethinking Hospitality Education” on Thursday 4th April. Anyone interested can register here.

Professor Peter Jones MBE FCGI FIH FRACA