Destination Coventry’s Annual Tourism Conference will take place on Thursday, September 15 at the city’s Manufacturing Technology Centre.

The conference will feature two key panel discussions with the first focusing on the recruitment and skills challenges facing businesses in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector.

The panel, which will run from 11am to midday, will be chaired by Fleur Sexton DL, Chief Executive and co-founder of multi-award winning PET-Xi Training.

She will be joined by:

Fleur Sexton DL discusses the key issues facing the sector which are fuelling the recruitment challenges, training and upskilling, career progression and much more in our latest blog. She also highlights what delegates can expect to hear discussed on the panel at the Destination Coventry Annual Tourism Conference.

The recruitment and skills crisis in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector is no secret.

Venues, suppliers and other businesses in the sector are crying out for more staff to enable them to continue to operate and provide the highest-quality service.

This is a national – and, in fact, international, issue and is a real challenge here in Coventry and Warwickshire for a number reasons.

Brexit and Covid are clearly the two biggest contributing factors, and, arguably, they have impacted our industry more than any other.

Hospitality is a vibrant and energetic sector, in which it is possible to build a meaningful career but, people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, have found new roles in new industries and are, understandably, scarred by the experience.

Covid-19 and Brexit saw many Europeans return home, find work, and decide not to come back to the UK. Many of them were highly experienced professionals – and that has left a skills and personnel gap.

We’ve also seen people retiring during the pandemic, which leaves a hole but also means that there are less experienced people around to mentor the next generation of workers in hospitality.

In this new landscape, up-skilling and re-skilling are more important than ever – and that is something we are hugely involved in through Metropolis restaurant in Coventry city centre.

We need to push the amazing benefits to people of working in the industry. Working in hospitality can be the most life affirming experience when it is at its best, staff develop excellent social skills, join new social groups, meet some great people and ultimately be part of a community.

The industry has to focus on these positives and ensure that message is heard loud and proud to encourage recruitment, and every business can play a role in that.

There is a widely-held misconception that many positions in the sector are entry-level and offer no room for upward progression but hospitality provides a real opportunity to build a meaningful career if that is what people want to do. You only have to look at how many senior and highly-regarded professionals have worked their way up the ladder after joining the industry at a young age.

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) recognised the severity of the issue and is making a big push on up-skilling, which is key if we are to overcome the current crisis.

We all have a role to play in helping staff to get to where they want to be and developing career pathways.

The WMCA is doing a great deal of work with sector-based work academies to ensure that learners are matched with employers, and that the training they deliver is relevant to those employers.

For example, at PET-Xi a business will come to us and say they have 15 vacancies but they require a certain skillset. We can then train up potential staff to hit those needs so that if they are successful at interview, they can be ready to hit the ground running.

The WMCA is definitely making good progress in increasing communications between training providers, colleges and employers. This groundwork will make a huge difference in the long-run.

This new process is fluid, flexible and quick – and gives young people, and older workers looking to reskill, the qualifications they need to get on the ladder.

Organisations in this region have always worked well in partnership and this is another example of how – with the support of councils and other organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire – we are fighting back against the recruitment crisis.

We should not just see the potential employment pool as people entering the workplace for the first time, we need to attract those with easily transferable skills.

For example, someone who has run a business, worked in a school or the police force will have, by dint of their experience, the skills to allow them to manage a front of house team.

We have to be adaptable and individual businesses have to play a role. For example, rural or out-of-town businesses, may have to help staff with transport or be flexible with their shift patterns so that they align with public transport patterns.

All of the above will be discussed at the Destination Coventry Annual Tourism topics covered will include:

  1. Training, up-skilling and re-skilling
  2. Innovative thinking
  3. The importance of supporting venues, local suppliers and the sector – as they need us more than ever.

It is going to be tough for the industry to regain lost ground in terms of staff and skills but, having just hosted Coventry City of Culture and the Commonwealth Games, we have had a lift that other regions have lacked and that can only be a good thing.

About Fleur Sexton DL:

Fleur Sexton is Deputy Lieutenant, representing Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands, Businesswoman of the Year and CEO and co-founder of multi-award winning PET-Xi Training, one of the most hard-hitting and dynamic training providers in the UK with a reputation for success with the hardest to reach.

Fleur is an active board member of Coventry & Warwickshire Champions, Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, Coventry & Warwickshire Employment and Skills Board, Trustee for the Historic Coventry Trust, Member of the Coventry 2021 Development Board, Chair of the Coventry Music Trust and member of the Commonwealth 2022 Legacy & Benefits Committee.

PET-Xi is a high-energy training specialist whose multi-award-winning teams work tirelessly to make a difference to people’s lives, firing up their minds with engaging and positive learning experiences designed to help them achieve their target grades, get back into employment or upskill and progress along their chosen pathways.

Fleur is also Co-founder and co-owner of Metropolis Restaurant in Coventry.