Kelly Johnstone has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer among of number of staffing changes at Springboard.

Johnstone joined the hospitality charity in August 2014 and has held a number of senior roles, most recently as Lead Operations for Scotland, Midlands, North England and Ireland.

She will be responsible for overseeing operational delivery across the UK and Ireland of the organisation’s Springboard to 2022 project, training and supporting 10,000 young people into work in hospitality in line with the industry’s recovery by 2022.

“I am over the moon to take up this new role at Springboard,” she said. “There has never been a better time to support hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses to get back on their feet. Over the last seven years, I have seen the important work my team do and having a national role will allow me to drive consistency and a ‘one team’ approach across our key strategic priorities.

This past year, combined with Brexit, presents a labour challenge for the industry and we have ambitious plans to support this by showcasing the diverse roles across all areas of the sectors to young people in education, while also supporting unemployed people of all ages into sustained employment. We have an amazing team, really supportive board of trustees, wonderful partners and inspirational trainees ready to Springboard into 2022.”

This is one of a number of changes linked to the delivery of Springboard to 2022, which is the charity’s most ambitious ever project and will see a significant increase in its training delivery. Other new roles include:

• Inga McVicar to Operations Director
• Sharon Sheratt-Gempton to Head of North England and Midlands
• Supriya Goyal to Senior Careers, Education & Employability Programme Delivery Manager, Midlands
• Tony Mullen to Senior Careers, Education & Employability Programme Delivery Manager, London
• Nic Darker to Senior Careers, Education & Employability Programme Delivery Manager, North West
• Paul Buchan to Senior Trainer
• Kerry Mabbley to Careers & Education Manager
• Bhavna Patel to Kickstart Project Lead
• Lucy Bradley to Ambassadors Project Lead
• Kate Farley to Fundraising Executive

Meanwhile, recruitment for a number of other roles has been ongoing throughout March, including seeing Springboard move into East Anglia, north east England and Yorkshire and expand in London, Northern Ireland, the midlands and north west England.

As part of this, Jamie Fenton recently joined as E-Learning Content Developer, while Caitriona Lennox joined as Northern Ireland manager.

Springboard Chief Executive Chris Gamm said: “I’m delighted for Kelly and all those taking on exciting new roles. We have some big plans for the year ahead; promoting hospitality to the next generation, attracting talent to it, giving them the skills for a successful career and helping 10,000 young people find work in the industry. We now have the team in place to deliver our mission to futureproof the talent pipeline for hospitality.”