October 2009

Academy of Talent at Merry Hill’s New Eat Central

The first recruits from a pioneering Hospitality Academy established by Westfield to help local people find employment at the new foodcourt in Merry Hill are celebrating after securing jobs at PizzaExpress who are opening a restaurant as part of the £24m development.

The Westfield Hospitality Academy, run by Stourbridge College in conjunction with other Westfield Academy partners including Job Centre Plus, LSC, Signpost and Future Skills, provides successful candidates with qualifications in Food Safety in Catering and Customer Service.

Calvin Dallaway, Amritpal Singh Bains, Cameron Wakeman and Naisha Lundy are among the first successful graduates and have all secured work at PizzaExpress in the new Eat Central development following a busy recruitment day run by the restaurant. More retailers are now recruiting ahead of opening on October 22nd.

Calvin Dallaway, aged 40, from Kingswinford, said: “The Hospitality Academy at Stourbridge has quite literally turned my life around. It’s not just the qualifications I’ve achieved; they went out of their way to find me a job too.

“I was unemployed after working for 20 years in the bathroom industry and then retraining as a chef. But when the recession hit and they reduced my hours drastically I had to find something else.

“When I heard about the new Eat Central I sent my CV to Westfield and was invited to an interview for the Academy. I was offered a place, I graduated successfully and now I’m going to be working front of house at Pizza Express.

“Applying for the Hospitality Academy has changed my life and I can’t wait to get started now.”

Nick Lawler, General Manager, Pizza Express, said: “The Hospitality Academy has proved invaluable towards the success of our recruitment process so far.

“The team at Merry Hill have been extremely helpful and we look forward to opening at the centre on 22nd October with our exciting new restaurant which takes pride of place, flanking the new, dedicated entrance to the centre.”

Candidates on the Westfield Hospitality Academy undertake a two week training course, which includes motivational activities, essential topics related to Food Safety and Customer Service, as well as interview techniques.

To date, 53 out of 55 candidates across four separate courses have successfully achieved a Level 2 Food Safety in Catering qualification and Level 1 in Customer Service.

Courses will continue to run until the beginning of November to help restaurants recruit locally for 200 new jobs created by the £24million development, which will include 16 eateries and three restaurants when it is opened by TV chef James Martin on October 22nd.

Emma Hindes, Westfield’s Centre Manager at Merry Hill, said: “We’re really pleased with the uptake for the course so far. The Hospitality Academy builds on the success of our dedicated Retail Academy which launched last year and trains local people for a career in retail – the UK’s largest private sector industry.”

Lynette Cutting, Principal of Stourbridge College, said: “Stourbridge College is delighted that its partnership with Westfield in setting up the Retail and Hospitality Academies has resulted in such a successful recruitment drive.

“It's our aim to get local people trained, qualified and in to jobs and we're pleased to have been able to provide one of Eat Central's new restaurants, Pizza Express, with a team of trained and qualified recruits who are ready to deliver a first class hospitality service to Merry Hill's customers."

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