Hospitality companies fare well in training awards

Five hospitality companies have triumphed in the Government's National Training Awards, against a multisector field of 1,000 entries. While entries for the national competition were up 25% this year, the biggest increase was from those in the hospitality sector, which saw a 70% increase in applicants.

Hospitality National Award Winners, who had already won their regional heats in October, were pub companies Hardys & Hansons and Spirit Group, Weavers Restaurant Trust, Botanic Inns, and Birmingham Hospitality Services.

"Recruiting and retaining the best quality staff is a key issue for the licensed retail sector. We devised our training initiative - Players - to buck this national trend and provide our outlets with the very best team players," said Jayne Mee, director of organisational development at Staffordshire-based Spirit Group, which owns 2,600 pubs.

Helyn Lynch, senior training manager at Hardys & Hansons, which has 80 managed pubs and won its award for the quality of its best practice management training, added: "It's a very competitive market. The most important thing for us was improving value for money by making our staff aware of how to maximise profitability."

The competition is run by UK Skills on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.