This Spring, Bill’s Restaurants is launching its first dedicated Bill’s Academy apprenticeship programme, which will offer industry-recognised level 2 hospitality diplomas to 250 chefs and front-of-house staff to progress and enrich their careers at the company. The scheme is a new concept for Bill’s and will run in addition to the restaurant group’s extensive training and development programme.
Apprentices will be nominated internally by Bill’s restaurant managers across the UK. Those selected will be enrolled in the year-long course, which starts at the end of March. An official Bill’s graduation ceremony will take place next year in Lewes, where Bill’s Restaurants was established by founder Bill Collison, who started out as a greengrocer.
The course will be mainly taught by Bill’s internal instructors, most of whom are longtime Bill’s employees, as well as founder Bill Collison himself who will host classes on heritage and food passion. Classes will take place at various venues across the UK. The diploma covers topics such as hospitality retail, drinks knowledge and general food courses such as breakfast, mezze and dessert.
Although currently open to internal staff only, Bill’s has plans to extend the academy to external candidates next year. Head of People Development at Bill’s, Lucy Craig, said: “Everyone at Bill’s is part of a hard-working and close team, which we’re really proud of. We want to continue nurturing and encouraging our staff to achieve great success, and as such launching the Bill’s Academy is our chance to show how serious we are about giving people the best training possible”.
Bill Collison says “This is an exciting new venture for Bill’s. The people who work for us are a huge part of who we are and the Bill’s Academy is an innovative way of reinforcing and building on the high standards our customers expect.”
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