Lee Olphert
I now have the confidence to apply for jobs and hope to gain employment and develop a future career in hospitality.”
Ann Spiers
After a lovely meeting and a great conversation about the Diageo Learning For Life course and what it entailed, I was very keen to take part in it. It has given me a great insight into the types of jobs that are available, the skills you need in order to do them and from our onsite visits, how happy everyone seems to be in their roles. I decided to do the course to explore a different career path. I have learned how beneficial this course is to providing people with valuable skills they need to find employment in this industry. It has helped improve my skills and confidence and has reminded me of my self-worth. I have enjoyed everything about the course from the training workshops, the practical sessions to the onsite visits. I feel it has provided me with valuable life skills, knowledge and qualifications to enable me to get a job in the industry.
I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in improving their knowledge and skills of the industry. There is so much to learn and all very valuable life skills for the future.
This is one of the best courses I have ever attended, and I feel very lucky to have been part of this wonderful experience. I am very excited to have been selected for an interview at my local tourist information centre.”
Olga Isupova
I observed that Edinburgh’s hospitality industry is a very active and developing sector. So, the Springboard course gave me an opportunity to understand the standards of the UK customer service and hospitality working approaches which are a little different from Ukrainian ones.
Being a stranger in a new country, it’s necessary to understand local rules, business habits and build professional connections. Springboard’s mentors helped me a lot not only with studying modules but with good advice and psychological support.
I was amazed by the willingness to help, involvement and flexibility of all Springboard team members. They were ready to find additional placement after learning that the biggest part of our group didn’t have normal access to the internet in our accommodation. They were ready to rebuild and customize some days of the program to respond to group’s needs.
Moreover, they helped me not to forget who I am!”
Olga has started work as a receptionist at IBIS South Bridge Edinburgh.
Maryna Tonka
“Given that I am a refugee from Ukraine, I would like to be useful for the country which provided us with shelter. Eventually, I would like to return to Ukraine and bring the knowledge I received here to my home country.
Springboard were very supportive and helpful in every issue we had approached them with.
I learned to work in a team and I have become more confident. I learned many differences in working with clients in my country, Ukraine and Scotland.”
Maryna has now started working as an F&B Assistant at the IBIS South Bridge, Edinburgh.
Shelly Leary
During the course, I got everything I had been looking for and more. The Springboard course offered an in depth, hands on look at a wide variety of what the hospitality sector had to offer and gave me the experience to pursue a career in the industry.
We learned about the running of hotels, bars, and restaurants, we learned how to approach employers and how to stand out from the crowd when doing so, and all in the most interactive, and engaging way I have ever been taught.
The hands on experience, making cocktails, tasting and testing food pairing, and interacting and working with my peers increased my confidence.
During the course, I decided I wanted to pursue a career in the hotel industry. I did a work placement at the Leonardo Hotel Liverpool and was successful and since then have begun work as an F&B Assistant.
If anyone is considering taking a course in hospitality, I would recommend a course with Springboard. You will not find a better course where your future is prioritised as much as it is with them.
Jordan Baines
I quickly secured employment through the guaranteed job interview scheme and was offered a job as a Food and Beverage Assistant with Leonardo Hotels. Through this course, I have not only found employment within the hotel industry, but I have already started my career development and have begun the first steps of moving into management.
I’m really grateful for what Springboard has done for me and I want to continue to progress and share my knowledge and experience with new talent as an Ambassador for Springboard in the future.
Georgia Holmes
During the course I gained far more than I expected – I stepped out of my comfort zone and I met some lovely new friends. I also got lots of help on the course from my mentor, who is so supportive. Now that I have a range of new skills and lots of knowledge, I feel far more confident in my approach to work and interacting with people.
I did a work placement with Greene King Pubs at the end of my training and was successful in securing a job with them in one other Liverpool city centre pubs.
I would highly recommend Springboard to anyone who wants to gain new skills and experiences as their courses offer so many different opportunities!
Somak Sonyal
Sophie Pace-Balzan
For almost 2 years before the course, I was struggling to get accepted anywhere due to my Tourette’s and non-epileptic seizures causing too many health and safety concerns not only for employers but unfortunately also for colleges. No matter where I went, I would always face the same issue of health and safety policies or occupational health reports coming back and saying due to the nature of my conditions I just wasn’t suitable for the job despite either being offered an unconditional offer or the job prior. I had almost given up hope but then the course came along, and it has honestly changed my life.
At the start of the course, we were given an activity to help us reflect and evaluate our hopes, fears, and objectives. I hoped that I would be able to gain connections with various people and places in the hospitality industry, opportunities would open in terms of future development and career prospects, and that I would be able to prove to employers that I could be a valuable and dependable employee. I can confirm all of these things have happened within the 3-week course and I am currently about to start a 1-week placement at Johnnie Walker’s due to all of the skills I have learned and an employer giving me a chance to show that I will be a valuable employee.
At the start of the course, I had been worried about being able to show good time-keeping skills due to relying on public transport, as I was travelling from Dunfermline to Edinburgh every day. I was also worried that my health would interfere with completing the course and finding employment and that I wouldn’t be able to absorb all of the information and skills being taught to us. I can happily say that I was able to overcome all of my fears and I was on time every day as well as I was able to finish the course (I have the certificate to prove it!) and if you asked me, I would be able to tell you all about Scottish Licensing, food safety, safe drinking and much more!
Finally, my objectives at the start of the course were to gain employment, obtain a placement at Johnnie Walker, learn new skills and gain confidence. As for learning new skills and getting a placement at Johnnie Walker, I am proud to say I definitely achieved that, as for confidence, I don’t think I would have even considered writing this with the knowledge it might be shared with others at the start of the course. I now have the confidence that I will find employment and have the skills to do so and so far, I seem to be making some headway with that which is incredibly exciting! I no longer feel as if I need to break down the door. Springboard gave me the key and now I can walk through without having to worry.
My ultimate ambition is to be able to be independent and do whatever I want to do. Currently, my ambition is to be working part-time whilst being able to go back to school and work towards becoming a pharmacist. This is not to say my ambition won’t change over time, but I know for a fact that without the help of Springboard, I would have never been able to start making progress on achieving both of those things, at least not without a fight. At the start of the course, I was excited and nervous and honestly, none of those things has changed apart from now I have confidence and I know that I have people advocating for me.”
Safiyyah Fletcher
I found out about the Springboard course and was extremely grateful to learn that the training would be face-to-face in a venue, rather than being a virtual program. During my difficult times of unemployment, it really helped break the cycle to get out of the house and talk to new people every day. Having that structure, with the great mentors, improved my positive outlook on jobs immensely over the first week, giving me the momentum, I really needed.
On one of the days, we had a day out, planned for CV hand-outs; this was a very nerve-wracking day for me in the beginning. Going into different establishments and not only dropping off my CV but also being able to talk about my skillset with confidence. As someone with a lot of pre-anxiety around this area, I needed a system to help me confront and overcome my fears. This has made me realise it’s okay to accept support and that you may need someone to guide you.
Another section I particularly benefited from was the assertiveness lecture, in which we went through a FLOW module. A key part of the hospitality workplace is learning and understanding boundaries of dealing with different people effectively.
Over the course, having fun events, like the mini golf after the lectures, made sure it was a meaningful experience. It gave me the chance to get closer to my peers during that difficult time. I only later realised how important it was to do activities with your peers in a non-work situation, it allowed us all to open up and share more of our struggles and experiences to understand each other. In my time, coincidently, the team I was given was a small one of around 5 of us. However, I feel especially grateful that it was a smaller group, as this meant we all got more focus and tailored insights from our team leader.
During my time with Springboard, my course leader had the perfect balance of knowing when to push and giving me space, and time when it came to following out the actions that needed to be taken towards securing a job. The combination of those two gave me the strength to push myself and stretch my previous limits before coming on this course.
I’m very grateful for having a course that will support what you want to do, the tailored experience provides solid advice on looking at work environments you would thrive best within. I learned a lot more than just practical skills for hospitality but life lessons to take with us about learning to appreciate your worth and time and importance, which is still a key to confidence people will pick up and understand within work.
Even though I feel the benefits of how much this course has changed me, getting feedback from the course leaders on how much I had progressed since I first came was motivating. She talked in detail about how nervous and self-doubting I was at the beginning to now being someone who can confidently take on new challenges.
I knew I had changed when I found myself in a new difficult situation which I had to deal with, and when that occurred, I remained calm, practical, and rational. After that scene, it made me pause and realise how subconsciously I have now gained such a toolkit. I was never able to do that before. So that moment was very special to me.
During my placement, I realised I was a person who liked to work hard, look after others, always stay on my feet, do better. I just didn’t recognise that in myself from being in a difficult place with low self-esteem for a long time. In my experience, after 2 days within my given placement, after showcasing what I had learned, even without me realising it, they offered me and another springboard attendee job opportunities within the company.
The nicest part was knowing even if the hotel holiday inn didn’t offer me any employment and was left to search for work on my own, I now have that clarity that I can find and secure a job if I want one. Having together all the effective toolkits with me now: To apply in stores, send effective emails to companies, and understand how to prepare for interviews. All these skills, not just learnt but experienced and practised through the weeks at springboard, have really changed my life and helped me get into work. People don’t realise how debilitating it is not to be able to be employed or be employed and how that affects mental health and self-esteem and how I now feel so capable. I’m now really excited for my new job. I am so grateful to springboard for this opportunity to have a new era of fulfilling, challenging work.
In a space where I felt lost, having a whole program to reinvent young people to believe in them that they have skills, they have worth, and that they are important is so invaluable. As for myself and other individuals who feel the pressure and discouragement of unemployment to be made sure to be supported and most of all believed in, which I think is the most significant part in my opinion and how every team leader gave me that support on this course.
I would recommend this programme to anyone who feels lost in their career and, more importantly, feels very trapped within their anxiety. This course helped me get out of a difficult place with my mindset, so to realise that everyone has so many skills already can get into the world of work.