Best Employers In Hospitality Awards 2012

On the 28th May this year, the Lancaster hotel in London will host the Best Employers in Hospitality Awards 2012. The competition is now open for entries! Employers enter themselves and then their employees rank them using a bespoke employee engagement tool which asks them to evaluate their employment experience with questions ranging from working environment through to career opportunities. Click on the above to learn more about this year’s competition and the winners of last year’s event. The deadline for completed entries this year is 2nd April.

Food and Drink Apprenticeships

With National Apprenticeship Week this week, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) are keen to exploit the Government’s commitment to deliver an extra 250,000 apprenticeship places by 2015 by increasing the number of apprenticeships available in the food and drink manufacturing sector. They have called on all UK food and drink manufacturers to sign up to an apprenticeship pledge and have also launched a careers campaign called 'Taste Success - A Future in Food'. Read about the FDF’s plans, some case study examples and find about their series of regional roadshows here

Recipe for Change

Friday 24th Feb will see the first ever World Food Night organised by the charity Refugee Action. It is an opportunity to hold an event and cook food from around the world for friends, family, or colleagues in return for donations for their dinner. Celebrity chef and “dragon slaying” entrepreneur Levi Roots has endorsed the event, and registration is now open for anyone who’d like to take part. The website has all the information and resources you’ll need, including invitation cards, a poster, and recipe ideas, as well as news of how others intend to participate.

Get into shape for 2012

Yes.. I know we're already here! I just wanted to draw your attention to the People 1st website, as it has developed a number of useful resources to help hospitality businesses 'get into shape' for 2012.. a huge year, with the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics and Paralympics!

New Journal - Hospitality & Society

Hospitality & Society is a new international social sciences journal which looks at the industry’s connections with social and cultural processes and structures which will hopefully lead to the developing of new approaches to the study of hospitality

You can view the contents of the first issue here:

The editors are also keen for you to submit your own papers:

I’ve had a quick peruse of the contents of the 1st issue and it does look like it will be a very interesting new title..

As far as the book reviews are concerned, we have several copies of O’Gorman; I’m not sure if the ‘Extending Hospitality’ title is entirely relevant, but I think I’ll order a copy of ‘Kitchens’ by Gary Fine.. Please speak up if you’d like to see ‘Extending Hospitality’ in the library stock !

Hospitality Action Week

This week (16th - 22nd May) is Hospitality Action week. Hospitality Action is the trade charity for the hospitality industry, and offers a range of services to past and present employees in the industry. All week, organisations and individuals up and down the country will be fundraising in a huge variety of ways!

Maybe you're doing something that you could tell the College about?

Find out more about the charity and how you can help here

Connect@UCB

This semester all UCB students have access to a new service from the library. Connect@UCB is an online help desk which you can visit to get support in finding useful information. Simply log on during the advertised hours and a member of staff will be available to help with your enquiry - perfect if you're unable to make it into College!

The desk will initially be open each weekday from 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm.

To access Connect@UCB, you will first need a Wimba Pronto account - information about this software and getting a free account is available from UCBOnline.

A user guide for Connect@UCB is available from this link.