Minister for employability and training, Jamie Hepburn MSP has announced the launch of Pizza Hut Restaurants’ first ever Modern Apprenticeship Programme in Scotland, which will see the company pledge 250 new Modern Apprenticeships over the next five years.
Offering Apprenticeships from Level two to Level three and covering a range of areas including food production and cooking and hospitality supervision and leadership, the programme will provide employees with a range of skills required to kick start careers in the hospitality industry.
Apprentices who join the programme, which is being delivered in partnership with ITC Academy, will follow a structured work-based learning platform, complimented by monthly one-to-one training sessions with their assessor. The training has been mapped to the national standards and learning is tailored to meet individual learning needs.
The launch of the programme comes at a pivotal time for the business which, over the past four years has invested £4m in Scotland, refurbishing around half of the Scottish portfolio so far.
Jamie Hepburn MSP said: “Modern apprentices make a real contribution to our economy and I am pleased that large organisations, such as Pizza Hut Restaurants, see the real benefits they bring to their business. It was a great pleasure to meet some of their modern apprentices and I wish them all the best as they embark on their careers.
“We are on course to meet this year’s target of 26,000 modern apprenticeship starts. But we want to go much further which is why we have an ambitious target to increase this to 30,000 starts by 2020. It’s encouraging to see Pizza Hut Restaurants set their own targets, helping even more young people make the most of their potential.”
Kathryn Austin, director of HR and Marketing at Pizza Hut Restaurants said: “The hospitality industry is the fourth largest employer in the UK, which means we have a responsibility to help grow and develop the next generation and dispel the myth that an apprenticeship is a secondary choice. As a leading hospitality business, our people are our greatest asset and we want to equip them with the right skills to succeed for their future.”
