Reaction: Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2011

Stewart Segal ~ Non-executive Director of HIT Training gives his reaction to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2011.

The Chancellor delivered an Autumn Statement that contained some tough messages today. Growth in the economy has slowed, borrowing has not reduced as much as the Government had hoped and there will be more job losses in the public sector. This follows the bad news on unemployment last week. However there were some measures that should help business, particularly smaller businesses. We know that the hospitality sector has a lot of small businesses and much of the growth on the economy will come from small and medium sized businesses.  

WORLDSKILLS PROVES A MASSIVE HIT

WorldSkills London 2011, the largest ever international skills Competition and careers event took place during early October at the Excel exhibition and conference centre.


1,000 young competitors from 51 nations were competing to be the best of the best in 45 different skill area’s which featured Cooking, Confectioner Pastry and Restaurant Service . The event lasted four days with team GB winning 13 medals in total, five of them were gold with Ben Murphy winning gold in the Cooking event.


More than 200,000 people from the UK visited and were inspired by the dedication of the teams taking part in the Competition.


Visitors were able to Have a Go at hundreds of new skills, meet top employers and get specialist careers advice to help make that important next step.

Reaction: Youth Unemployment Reaches 1 Million

Stewart Segal ~ Non-executive Director of HIT Training gives his reaction to this weeks news of unemployment figures among the young. 


This week the level of unemployment amongst young people aged up to 24 reached over 1 million. 
Although this was predicted by all of the newspapers it did not make the news any easier to accept. It is clear that as companies try and keep their costs down they are reluctant to take on young people who need training and support in the early stages of their careers. 


This makes Apprenticeships as a route into work even more important for young people and provides companies the opportunity to maintain their recruitment of young people. 

SWISSOTEL WIN HIT TROPHY AT HACCC 2011

A record 48 football teams made up of employees from the UK’s top hotels and restaurants, competed in a charity football tournament in September to help raise funds for Springboard.


The Hotel and Catering Challenge Cup (HACCC) saw 48 top London hotels and restaurants accompanied by nearly 2000 supporters participate in a charity football tournament on Sunday 18 September 2011.  HIT were in attendance acting as stewards and also offering information on training and apprenticeships available to industry staff, whilst showing of one of their new MINI Countryman’s


The event raised £15,000 for Springboard, which helps young adults and disadvantaged teenagers gain experience in the hospitality and catering sector.

A day in the life of a Trainer Assessor.

Hayley Wedgwood Trainer Assessor for Cambridgeshire takes time out of her busy schedule to give us a quick glimpse of daily life as an assessor.

It’s a Tuesday and I am off to one of my favourite sites to see one of my learners, Diane. The site is about 1 hour away from where I live and is located in a lovely little village in the middle of nowhere. The pub itself is very unique in that it is bright blue and can been seen from miles away.

When I arrive at the pub it is always a fantastic warm welcome with a lovely Latte waiting on the bar for me (talk about Customer Service) I check that it is still ok for me to see Diane and that work set on my previous visit is still convenient.

We start by sitting and catching up on how things have been since I last visited. I also check if Diane is happy in her work and has no issues or concerns as well as seeing if she has had any time off from work. Being responsible for Diane’s welfare means I have to check that she is happy.

So after a little chat and being filled in on local things (mainly gossip) which I love, we get to work and Diane and I have a professional discussion on how she follows the rules in her workplace and how this impacts on customer service delivery. Diane has prepared an excellent prompt sheet to help guide the discussion and give it a structured flow, it also means Diane is prepared and there are no surprises!

HIT kicks off 'Have a Go' road-show

HIT kicks off 'Have a Go' road-show with lessons in the art of napkin folding from Jon Clay manager of HIT's Sussex team!

It's Tuesday 19^th July and today we have been invited to a careers event in Eastbourne. We have our own stand where we plan on getting year 10 students from the school involved in our 'Have a Go' activity.

The venue is Ratton Bourne School in Eastbourne and myself and Lee from the Sussex team will be here representing HIT to highlight apprenticeships in the hospitality and catering industry. This is the first careers event of the summer for us and is also Ratton Schools first ever careers fair! It's not your typical careers event as the school has recognised that not all students will go into further education but may also go straight into full time work, with this in mind there is a mixture of colleges, training providers and local employers all here offering advice.

HIT @ The Nowka Bais 2011

A sea of green and red accompanied by the sound of cymbals and drums filled Farmoor Reservoir, Oxford on Sunday 10th July 2011 for the Fourth Annual National Nowka Bais (the Bangladeshi community’s annual boat race).

HIT's Shane Bailey (Thames Valley Team Leader) tells us his experiences of a day where eighteen teams from all over UK competed for the HIT Cup, each equipped with their own decorated Bangladeshi boats with crews dressed in traditional colourful costumes.

This was HIT Training's first Nowka Bais and we were all looking forward to being part of this colourful and exciting event on what turned out to be a fantastic day.

Myself and my team were all extremely enthusiastic about the event and having the opportunity to meet so many people from the Bangladeshi community.

HIT embraces technology

For Lester Biddle, HIT’s South East Regional Operational and Training Manager, technology and e-learning are absolutely critical to the future development of the company, particularly in the present financial climate.

It was about a year ago that I first became interested in how technology could be used within HIT to aid assessment and learning.  My knowledge on the subject was fairly limited, so I undertook some CPD (Continuing Personal or Professional Development) on the subject to expand my understanding and also to gain experience for existing practitioners.  

My first intention was to gain sufficient information to design a one day workshop on the subject matter.  This was completed after about 2 months and the workshop was written and ready to roll out.  I offered the workshop predominantly to Trainer Assessors and Internal Verifier's across the country.  Starting in the South East, I took the workshop and delivered in 14 locations across the country.  To date 145 of HIT's staff have attended the workshop.

Harry's Great Wall Trek

Our Norfolk & Suffolk area manager, Harry Baird recently took part in Springboards Great Wall of China Trek raising funds for the hospitality charity Springboard UK. As part of a team of 24 trekkers from all walks of the industry Harry tells us of his experiences..

Part 2

There it was the great wall! It seemed endless!

We all limbered up and the first of the 12 pairs moved up the hill where we split into three groups to remain throughout the trek.

Having not kept up with the fast paced middle trekkers I walked on my own until I decided to leave the wall with a hard prickly bush taking my fall in places I wish not to discuss.

Once the summit had been reached we went to catch our bus and return for another late Chinese lunch (oh please, please release me from this) and another visit was planned on our way back.

Finally we arrived at our lodge tired and thirsty. We all got ourselves cleaned up, had another Chinese dinner (of the same foods as previous) and met in the room where cards, beer and firewater inevitably improved the morale.

10 miles completed

Day 3 - Monday 28 March 2011

The morning arrived. I knew then that the firewater had not been good for me! Breakfast would have been a step to far so instead I somehow got up, showered and shaved.

I met everyone out front and death was a good description of what I saw. We all drank lots of water and started our trek on foot, slowly I walked one step then another and somehow I continued with the encouragement from the group and knowing it was self-inflicted!

The trek went on for hours and slowly I recovered to take in some superb sights and thrilling scenery. Finally our lunch break included a sandwich which was enjoyed by all as a welcome change.

Onward and upwards we trekked until finally a descent was made into a village that did not fit in with the surroundings. Our last group arrived to Chinese karaoke of some sort where a beer was thrust into my hand (which took 60 minutes to consume). As we talked and reflected our trek the urge for karaoke took over some of the trekkers

20 miles completed

Oh forgot to mention dinner! A Chinese meal of similar type was provided and I opted for an early night.

Harry's Great Wall Trek

Our Norfolk & Suffolk area manager, Harry Baird recently took part in Springboards Great Wall of China Trek raising funds for the hospitality charity Springboard UK. As part of a team of 24 trekkers from all walks of the industry Harry tells us of his experiences..

Part 1

Day 1 - Friday 25th March and Saturday 26^th March 2011

All the trekkers met for the first time at Heathrow airport, 3 hours prior to departure where small conversation was made as everyone tried to get to know each other. Charity Challenge who helped organise the event, met everyone and assisted the group through booking and baggage.

Our flights consisted of flying first to Helsinki in Finland and then onto a connecting flight to Beijing. Once aboard our flight we started to get to know each other with friendships starting on what was a calm flight…That was until we started to land at Helsinki airport, where Finn air suddenly became very thin air indeed!! As we swirled everywhere the runway was toing and froing from my view out the window. Suddenly with a twist the plane went down hard and all on-board bounced, we had landed. As an icebreaker I feel that this would take a lot to be beaten.

After the drama we boarded our long flight to Beijing which was less scary although the previous experience gave all the trekkers something to talk about. Eight hours or so later we arrived at our destination and after getting through immigration we set foot outside and greeted Beijing, and the smog greeted us!

We were met by our guides who gave us a brief introduction to China before we set off in traffic that can only be compared to the M25 rush-hour. After crawling through traffic for some time a decision was made to take an early, very welcome lunch of Chinese cuisine. As we sat down everything starting moving on a turning table, first a bowl and then chop sticks in tow “Where’s the forks”, the realisation sunk in, we need chopstick skill! The meals kept on coming with let’s say ‘unusual flavours’ and when they state pork it’s not pork as you know it, although now was not the time I wanted to find out.

Welcome to our new Blog!!!

Welcome to our new blog! We hope to give you an insight into the lives of all the people who make HIT so successful, from the boardroom to the training room.

April was a busy month for all of us at HIT, but we still managed to find time to pat ourselves on the back when staff from all round the company got together and celebrated our successes over the past year at our annual company conference, with this year’s theme "Going for Growth". 

At the conference the board gave us a brief on the State of the Nation, summarising the past 12 months for HIT and painting the picture for the future. This was followed by our celebrity guest speaker… The Michelin and 5AA Rosette award winning French chef - Jean-Christophe Novelli!!

The inspirational Jean-Christophe Novelli gave us an insight into his life story, with anecdotes from his childhood to receiving his first Michelin Star.

An entertaining day was capped off with an Oscar style awards ceremony and lots of celebrating, and HIT certainly know how to celebrate!!!