TOURISM JOBS AND SKILLS
The UK tourism industry employs 3.1 million people, making it the UK’s third largest employer. However, the seasonal nature of many tourism businesses means that employers often struggle to attract and retain sufficiently skilled staff, and the industry can be overlooked for its successful, long-term career prospects.
UKinbound has contributed to the industry’s Sector Deal which proposes the following initiatives for tourism jobs and skills:
- A big, industry-led, 10-year campaign to shift perceptions about tourism and hospitality jobs, and to encourage more people to join the industry
- That tourism and hospitality is included in the Government’s new T-Levels and apprenticeship schemes
- To get many more industry figures out into schools and colleges to promote the industry
Employees from the EU
With over two thirds of the UK’s international visitors coming from the EU, many of our members rely heavily on employees from the EU primarily for their language skills and understanding.
Unfortunately, our members are telling us that their EU employees are starting to return home and they are finding it difficult to recruit staff from within the UK. We are therefore urging Government during the Brexit negotiations to ensure that there will be an immigration system in place to allow businesses to access EU workers after the UK leaves the EU, and to ensure that there is visa-free access for our EU visitors.
At a Parliamentary Reception on 19 June 2018 we launched a report on the growing language skills gap in the UK and the main reasons behind this.
Read more…
February 2019 – National academies publish call for action on languages
September 2018 – MAC publishes final EEA migration report
June 2018 – New UKinbound report uncovers tourism language skills crisis
April 2018 – MAC publishes interim report on EEA nationals in the UK labour market
September 2017 – UKinbound members surveyed on the impact of Brexit on their EU workers.
