Accor is is to invest £5 million in employee training and plans to create 3,500 jobs in the UK by 2015.
The French hotel giant, which runs brands including Sofitel, Novotel and Ibis, said it wanted to strengthen its commitment to supporting its future and existing employees across its network of 185 hotels in the UK.
Accor is to open a professional training centre and launch a partnership with learning provider Babcock to develop its apprenticeship scheme.
UK and Ireland managing director Thomas Dubaere said:.”Now more than ever, finding and developing talent is vital to achieving our ambitious growth strategy. This is why we are making this significant investment.
“Hospitality is a very promising career path. Indeed the vast majority of our senior managers started as trainees at one of our hotels.”
HR director Philip Addison said: “Our new approach aims to discover and nurture potential talent from as wide a pool as possible – from teenagers struggling to find employment to graduates from the UK’s best hospitality courses.
“Our management apprenticeship programme gives young people qualification and training.”