Premier Inn joined together with the Workskills team at the Chesterfield College group to offer training and work opportunities for people living in the Chesterfield area.
A sector based work academy was organised at Chesterfield College to provide opportunities for people to gain the skills they needed in order to be offered employment at Premier Inn’s new 92 bed hotel on Elder Way in town. Sixty local people joined the academy, which was supported by Chesterfield Borough Council, and were given the chance of an interview at the end of the course. Of these, 20 were offered jobs at the hotel ranging from housekeeping, maintenance and ground floor staff to front of house.
The course was tailored to meet the needs of Premier Inn and the group was given training in areas ranging from employability, how to write an effective CV to confidence building, time keeping and money management.
Lee Kirton, Workskills delivery manager, said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for local people. We’ve been working with the local Job Centre Plus and Chesterfield Borough Council to put on a sector-based work academy. It’s been a fantastic success for the learners, ourselves and the local Job Centre Plus.”
Ellis Newby, Workskills tutor, added: “It was a brilliant atmosphere during training and some good friendships were created, which was a good thing, particularly for those who will go on to work together at Premier and helped them all bond before they’ve even started working together. Everyone was given every opportunity to succeed during the course and there were some real success stories to come out of it. It was great to be involved and see so many positive outcomes. It’s good to be part of something where we are changing people’s lives.”