Springboard Programme: Barclays Destination Hospitality Course

Region: Manchester

Year: 2023

“I’ve come from a retail management background. I left my job just before COVID hit and just fancied doing something different. I walked into the JobCentre and spoke to a lady who wanted me to go for a job, selling insurance, which isn’t the job for me.

She asked “Well what do you fancy doing?”, I said “I wouldn’t mind being barista trained?”. She then told me about Springboard, who were running a hospitality course, “would you be interested?”, I said “Yeah, let’s give it a go!”

Fast forward a week later, I’m on a three-week hospitality course covering cocktail making, sampling different spirits, visiting hotels and restaurants and coffee shops, being taught how to carry trays taking orders for food, even a day’s barista training.

I found it very informative, interesting, engaging, fun and the opportunity to meet new and existing people and work as a team to help each other.

I would recommend anyone going into the hospitality sector to give this course ago. At the end of the course, we got put into work placements for a week, I got put into a coffee shop called 200 degrees coffee in Manchester City Centre, where I got offered a full time job because I expressed to the staff and the managers from head office, that I’m the sort of person that just gets on with it and goes for it. I know I’m on my way to being a head barista and maybe in the future open my own record shop with a coffee shop inside. So, as I said before I would recommend anyone wanting to get into hospitality to do this course with Springboard, you will learn a lot as I did.”