Greene King aims to help Britain level-up by taking on 5,000 apprentices

Greene King has made a commitment to provide more job and training opportunities across its pub estate for jobseekers from any background.

The company has launched a new report Untapping Potential: the role of pubs in levelling up skills, jobs and communities, highlighting the role that pubs play in providing careers in local communities.

A spokesman added: "Greene King also makes a number of new commitments around recruiting and training people from any background to be able to have a successful career in their local pub. This builds on Greene King’s ongoing work to promote social mobility, which has included supporting more than 15,000 apprentices since 2011 and 100 prison leavers through the company’s Releasing Potential programme."

The report was launched at a reception in Parliament attended by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi MP and Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP.

The spokesman said: "The report highlights the need to improve career opportunities in local communities across the UK. Over half of young people (56%) in Yorkshire don’t believe there are enough promising job opportunities in their local area, despite 90% of the same group being interested in a job that would allow them to stay in their community.

"The report also found over half of young people (54%) in Yorkshire believe that hospitality only provides short term opportunities, not promising careers, highlighting a perception problem."

Greene King has pledged to add 5,000 new apprentices across the 32 different types of apprenticeships currently available by 2025.

It also plans to recruit 300 prison leavers by 2025 in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and open the first Greene King prison training kitchen at HMP Thameside. Greene King has already supported 100 prison leavers into employment.

The spokesman added: "The report also urges government and the wider hospitality industry to continue to work together to enable the sector to provide skilled and fulfilling careers, and feed into the Levelling Up agenda. This includes calls to ensure that Government and the National Careers Service do more to promote hospitality as a skilled profession, empower businesses through reform of the Apprenticeship Levy, including ensuring consistency in apprenticeship programmes and enabling businesses to use any unspent levy funds more flexibly, remove barriers to employers recruiting prison leavers by introducing more standardised recruitment processes, and establish an inter-departmental working group with industry to identify opportunities to promote routes into hospitality careers."

Nick Mackenzie, CEO of Greene King, commented: “Pubs have always been about people, and I’ve witnessed the way a job in a pub can completely change a person’s life and become a lifelong, successful career. That’s why I’m proud that Greene King is making these commitments to provide people from all backgrounds access meaningful, rewarding careers in their local communities. Pubs have so much to offer both for those looking for careers and those in the local community. If we are to fully capitalise on this potential, government and wider industry must pull together to promote careers in hospitality and empower businesses to offer even more training and development opportunities.”

Minister for Levelling Up, the Union and Constitution, Neil O’Brien MP commented: “Pubs are the lifeblood of our communities, providing a key hub for relaxing, socialising and working and Greene King’s report and commitments are an amazing example of levelling up in action. The 32 different apprenticeship options currently available will boost skills and encourage prosperity in communities. Our Levelling Up White Paper committed the government to rolling out Local Skills Improvement Plans, with funding, across England, giving local employer bodies and stakeholders a statutory role in planning the provision needed in their area. We will continue to work with the private sector and support projects like Greene King’s that bring opportunity to areas up and down the country, as we continue to honour our commitment to levelling up every corner of the UK while growing the economy to address the cost of living.”

Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, Chair of the Education Select Committee stated: “As the Government pushes forward with its levelling up ambitions, I believe that apprenticeships have an essential role to play. Commitments from businesses, such as the additional 5,000 apprentices that Greene King has pledged to support by 2025, will be key to levelling up the country and I am proud to support the company’s Untapping Potential report and its aim to create greater opportunities for people from all backgrounds. I have always believed that apprenticeships provide an incredibly important ladder of opportunity and Greene King has helped many thousands of apprentices climb up that very ladder.”