Springboard Programme: Hospitality & Bartending Course (Diageo Learning for Life)

Region: London

Growing up in North West London, Holly was like every other girl. Then, just after her 15th birthday, everything changed when she found out she was pregnant. Although she managed to hide it for the first six months, her mother soon discovered her secret – and three months later, her daughter was born. Her happiness would be short lived, however, after the pair ended up confined to a Mother and Baby Unit due to her young age, while authorities attempted to find a solution to her situation. Eight months and 25 court battles later, Holly was released – a single mother with low confidence and no qualifications, unsure of how to build the life that she and her daughter so desperately needed.

Her salvation would come from her Job Centre support worker, who referred her to The Springboard Charity. She attended a recruitment day, and signed up for the Hospitality & Bartending Course (Diageo Learning for Life), able to see a future working in hospitality. She sailed through the course, and her confidence grew massively by the end of the programme. Not only was she able to face her fear of interviews and gain a work placement in Hendon Hall Hotel, but the hotel were so impressed with her that she was made permanent, and remained there for two years.

Now Holly has created a life that she’s proud of, providing the ideal role model for her daughter. She’s progressed up to Service Team Leader at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, and is no longer merely surviving – but truly living. Her future ambitions are to provide her daughter with everything she needs, and she one day dreams of opening her own hospitality establishment.