The Crown Estate is hosting the first of its kind jobs fair to help support its hospitality customers with staff shortfall.
The event will take place on Tuesday 14th June at Park Row on Brewer Street, between 10am and 4pm, offering over 500 applicants the opportunity to gain a hospitality role in London’s vibrant West End.
The hospitality businesses taking part in the fair include some of London’s most acclaimed restaurants and cafes, such as Park Row, Fallow, Café Murano, Corbin & King Group Limited, Hotel Café Royal and Ole & Steen, along with some independent brands such as Neat Burger and Avocado Show.
This follows on from a recent survey of The Crown Estate’s hospitality customers, which revealed that there was a shortfall of over 600 staff across 25 participating businesses. This reflects the issues that the wider hospitality sector across the country is facing, with restaurants, cafes, hotels and bars struggling to recruit the requisite amount of staff.
With a recent poll by Opinium suggesting that just 5% of young adults are considering a job in hospitality, the fair comes at an opportune time as The Crown Estate will be hosting a variety of activities, workshops and demonstrations throughout the careers fair. This includes chef demonstrations to barista training; drop in skills workshops to free professional photography shots, which will aim to support young people considering starting a career in hospitality, or individuals who are keen to look for new opportunities.
A wide array of roles are available including baristas, bar tenders, waiters, kitchen porters, chefs, chef de parties, pastry chefs, hosts, managers, front of house, back of house, sales, operation managers and housekeeping.
Leanne Catterall, Customer Partnership Director at The Crown Estate, said: “This is the first jobs fair of its kind for The Crown Estate, and will act as a pilot for how we can continue working with, and supporting, our customers and communities in the future.
“It will be a great opportunity to not only support our customers, by showcasing the fantastic career opportunities within hospitality, but also unlock new opportunities for people from all different backgrounds.
“This is only the beginning, and working together will ensure we can maximise the impact we can have. We look forward to learning from this, and seeing how we can take this initiative forward in the future.”
James Robson, Co-Founder of critically acclaimed Fallow restaurant in St James’ Market, added: “What a great event to be a part of. We launched Fallow at a tremendously difficult time - just days before the first lockdown. Our sector has been crippled by the pandemic and staffing is a major part of this. We need to do all that we can to show prospective employees the wonders that a role in hospitality can provide, and the jobs fair on 14th June will do just this.”
The event will be free to attend, and open to anyone, with tickets available here.