Compass
Group’s Specialist Markets Division is celebrating a £750,000 boost for its NVQ
training programme in partnership with leading hospitality training provider
HCTC.
The
new award, from the Learning and Skills Council-funded National Contracts Service,
follows around £1 million of funding from the same body last year. Combined with the division’s other training
schemes, it will create what is believed to be the hospitality industry’s
largest-ever NVQ training programme, giving opportunities for 2,000 people to
undertake NVQ qualifications by June 2004.
The
funding from the National Contracts Service is providing training places for
NVQ Level 2 qualifications in Food and Drink Service, Food Preparation,
Customer Service and Hospitality Quick Service and NVQ Level 3 qualifications
in Supervision.
“We
are delighted to have received further funding from the National Contracts
Service which will guarantee that our people have the right skills to continue
to deliver the first-rate service our clients expect,” says Mary Noble,
divisional training manager for Compass Group’s Specialist Markets Division.
“We have excellent in-house training tools, but the NVQ programme is important
because it gives staff external recognition of their expertise.”
The
training programme extends across all companies which form part of the
Division: healthcare hotel services company Medirest; specialist education
caterer Scolarest; defence catering and hotel services provider Eurest Defence
Support Services; Eurest Criminal Justice, which provides catering and support
services to the police, prison authorities and the fire service; and Eurest
Managed Services which provides managed services across all sectors.