Recruitment & skills
Cumbria Tourism’s regular business performance surveys highlight the very real issue our members continue to face not only sourcing staff with the right skills, but also retaining them and keeping young people within the county.
With Cumbria’s ageing population, many tourism and hospitality operators are recruiting from a shrinking pool of applicants. The Cumbria Tourism team is working on a wide range of initiatives to address misconceptions about working in our industry, actively encouraging more people to take up roles in tourism and hospitality – and crucially, helping to fill jobs in the sector.
Tourism Talent Hub
Our ‘Tourism Talent Hub’ is helping shape future tourism skills by bringing a wide range of practical help and resources together in one place to support businesses and jobseekers across Cumbria.
Tourism and hospitality businesses can use the Tourism Talent Hub to find new talent to support their day-to-day needs. As well as adverting job vacancies for free, they can tap into partnerships with education providers and opportunities such as Sector Workplace Academy Programmes.
For jobseekers, this extensive online platform showcases a diverse range of full-time, part-time, seasonal and ‘live in’ opportunities, as well as enabling people to access a wide range of training, apprenticeships, adult training programmes, skills bootcamps and more.
‘Welcome to Work’ in the Visitor Economy
The award-winning ‘Welcome to Work project’ aims to give people who are furthest from the labour market the opportunity to access meaningful employment.
That includes people living in remote or economically and socially deprived parts of Cumbria, as well as young people who are ‘not in education, employment, or training’ (NEETs), refugees, ex-offenders and those with special educational needs and disabilities or physical or mental health conditions.
Welcome to Work has included helping people directly into work, matching jobseekers with vacancies and engaging with education providers to promote the visitor economy as a potential career path for young people.
Cumbria Tourism has also teamed up with a wide range of specialist partners including: Growing Well, Movement to Work, People First, Right to Work, Inspira, Realise HR, the Centre for Leadership Performance, the Prison & Probation Service and more.
Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) in collaboration with both local authorities, ‘Welcome to Work’ seen some great results in the first 12 months alone: we’ve engaged with 370 jobseekers and 111 have found work in our industry.
Cumbria Tourism is supporting local communities by offering a brokerage service to match make jobseekers with businesses who have vacancies. This includes working with partners to help people into jobs within the industry, particularly groups who may face specific barriers to work.
We work with Cumbrian schools and partners like Inspira and the Centre for Leadership Performance, to establish a strong presence for our industry and influence perceptions from primary school age onwards. Careers events and employer engagement projects are helping open young people’s eyes to the opportunities available.
Cumbria Tourism collaborates with leading higher education institutions to support career events and facilitate introductions with local chefs and hospitality professionals; these partnerships are vital to develop a strong pipeline of apprentices and future talent. We also help coordinate academic field trips to highlight graduate-level opportunities to students from outside the county.
How member businesses can get involved
Advertise your job vacancies for free
- It’s easy to upload your job vacancies and advertise on our Tourism Talent Hub. Live vacancies are then promoted through a wide range of channels: job fairs, one-to-one meetings, careers events and referrals. They are also shared with partner organisations like Inspira, DWP (The Department for Work & Pensions), local authorities and HE (Higher Education) institutions.
- If you’re looking to fill multiple vacancies, Cumbria Tourism can organise tailored on-site recruitment days. We’ll bring candidates directly to you, giving you the opportunity to showcase your roles, provide a tour of your establishment and even conduct same-day interviews. (Subject to funding availability).
- If you offer live-in accommodation, transport or similar incentives for staff, please include these in the job description. This helps to break down the barriers for those looking for work.
- We encourage all employers to be flexible and inclusive. If you are a Disability Confident employer or can offer reasonable adjustments to support the right candidate, please make sure this is clearly stated in your job description too!
- You can upload apprenticeship opportunities on the Tourism Talent Hub. Cumbria Tourism receives enquiries from students looking for apprenticeships (in customer service, hospitality & catering, administration, etc) and we’re here to help if you need more information on recruiting an apprentice.
Introductions to your local school, college or university
Cumbria Tourism can help connect your business with local schools, colleges and universities to explore opportunities for careers engagement, apprenticeships, and wider staff training.
Collaboration is key to showcasing the wide variety of career pathways available. Misconceptions still persist around the industry – particularly around low pay, long hours and limited progression. With your involvement, we can work together to build a more positive and accurate reputation for tourism and hospitality in Cumbria.
Attend events and training
Keep your eye on Cumbria Tourism’s events page for training that can support you to recruit and retain those facing barriers to work. We’ve previously supported training in inclusivity, neurodiversity and dealing with substance abuse in the workplace.
If you can pledge an hour to careers education in your local school or college, please complete this form here. This could involve attending a careers fair, hosting mock interviews or a hospitality and tourism insight presentation. This will allow our industry to be positively represented and spread awareness of the opportunities available.
Welcome to Excellence Training Courses
Cumbria Tourism is Cumbria’s only accredited provider of the nationally recognised Welcome to Excellence programme, the UK’s leading customer service training initiative with over 400,000 participants since its launch in 1993. Designed for front-line staff, managers, business owners, volunteers and students across hospitality, tourism, leisure, accommodation and visitor attractions, Welcome to Excellence supports Cumbrian visitor businesses to raise service standards, improve customer satisfaction and retention, and identify opportunities to maximise revenue.
Success stories
We’re always on the lookout for individuals who are passionate about their careers in the industry, to explain what their role involves and the opportunities they’ve received.
The Cumbria Tourism team can promote these case studies on the Tourism Talent Hub and share with potential jobseekers and networks through our day-to-day work.
Cumbria Tourism’s Charitable Fund
To help boost future tourism talent, grants of up to £500 are available to those who are newly employed in Cumbria’s visitor economy, as well as tourism and hospitality students aged 16+ years who live and study/train in the county.
If you think someone in your team could benefit, find out more here.
Chartered Manager (Visitor Economy) – Degree Apprenticeship
If you’re looking for ways of retaining valued members of your team, it’s worth looking into the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship at The University of Cumbria.
This innovative three-year programme has a vastly reduced fee for SMEs (and paid for by levy contributions for larger companies). It enables members of your team to study for a degree, while working and gaining valuable experience – and there is no cost to the student.
This is an excellent way of training managers within your company and getting the benefit of up-to-date learning at the same time.
Contact Angela Anthonisz to find out more: angela.anthonisz@cumbria.ac.uk
Breaking down transport barriers
Cumbria Tourism is lobbying hard on behalf of our members to improve transport connectivity across the county – a vital step in supporting our workforce and tackling recruitment barriers in the visitor economy.
Our role bridges the public and private sectors – working closely with councils, transport providers and employers – to help coordinate smarter, sustainable transport solutions for workers.
Get In Touch
To find out more about the work Cumbria Tourism is doing around recruitment and skills, and how your business can get involved, contact: Rachel Tyson rtyson@cumbriatourism.org or Molly Hill mhill@cumbriatourism.org