There is a joy in giving young people opportunities but Government policy is putting these at risk - Carl Les
One of the pleasures, joy even, of my working life was engaging with young people. None in my experience started as young as I did, 5-years-old helping my grandmother stock up the small shop attached to our café in Leeming Village, thrown up on to the high shelf around the room and passed the delivery of packets of Smiths Crisps that came in metal tins, not cardboard boxes in those days, stacking them away tidily, rotating the older stock to the front, lesson learnt straightaway.
Or standing on an upturned empty wooden crate, serving customers across the counter, a practical learning of mental arithmetic in the days of pounds, shillings and pence. When I was there we could open up two windows to serve, productivity doubled. Another lesson learnt.
But our business did see a lot of young starters, often coming for their first taste of work, even if only for weekends, evenings or school holidays. Some left quickly, as it wasn’t for them, that was understandable, but most stayed until they went on to higher education, often away from home, or started their careers in other sectors.
For some it was the more regularised, curriculum demanded work experience, formally organised from school. But for most it was the opportunity to earn some money of their own, independent of their parents if they wanted some discretionary spending on clothes, records, holidays or a pair of trendy sandals and the like.
I interviewed many of them, even light-touch the trepidation of that process matched only by the anxious looks on their faces when they reported for their first shift. I hope that as a family business we were a welcoming and happy place to work and new starters settled in quickly and easily, but timekeeping, training and tenacity were common attributes we would share with any business in whatever sector.
Some took to the business very well indeed, and I like to think that amongst all the multitude of business sectors, hospitality and retail have the greatest potential impact to deliver on all preparedness for work. In these environments you must put the customer first, you need to be accurate, you must act in a timely manner, you have to show respect in all that you are doing, or else you fail. Such manifestations of the ‘service’ ethos can be carried into all sectors where every transaction has a customer, if not necessarily a retail or external one.
I enjoyed throughout my time seeing the expectant faces of the young aspirants, with a nervous but clear enthusiasm to do well, and I enjoy seeing the same now in restaurants I visit that are not in my control, and also in the training rooms of catering colleges across the country.
It is perversely disappointing that James Martin, a Yorkshire lad inexplicably missing out on a Michelin star or two himself, feels he has to write in this paper last weekend about the troubling times our industry is facing because of government policy driving higher energy costs, higher employment costs that penalise recruitment, higher raw material costs because of international actions, some might say faux-pas, higher revaluations of property taxation, and higher direct output taxation than our competitor neighbouring countries, and at the same time a million young people are unable to find a job.
There is also the spectre of a tourism tax that will add to the price of businesses that are already becoming uncompetitive compared to other countries, and unless based on a percentage rather than a flat rate, will impact disproportionately higher on lower value holidays. No wonder there is speculation that this government either doesn’t understand the hospitality and retail sectors, or just doesn’t care.
In contrast to this gloom, it was a pleasure to read about the NY Apprentice Awards last week, apprenticeships well described as “not a secondary choice – they are a first-class ticket to a successful career”. I’m very proud that our Council was recognised as a major player, and won a Large Employer Award, a Training Provider/Programme award for our care provider services, and individual awards for Mentor of the Year, Health Apprentice, and Technology & Digital Apprentice. Well done to all.
Since the 2017 apprenticeship reforms, NYC(C) has had over 1,200 individuals start on apprenticeship programmes. Presently we have 383 apprentices on programmes across all geographical areas and all directorates. They are from a range of ages and stages of their careers and are studying a range of apprenticeship types at all levels in the training spectrum. Programmes are offered and are being pursued in care, finance, planning, driving, childrens’ services and support, management skills, catering and IT. Specialisms include those where there is a shortage of skills, not just in North Yorkshire but nationally. Apprenticeships in schools include management, teachers, teaching assistants and early years.
It is a delight when the online staff bulletin mentions another apprentice passing through a successful phase in their career, hopefully always still with that expression of enthusiasm. After all, they are the future for all of us.
Coun Carl Les is the Leader of North Yorkshire Council.