Best Western Monkbar Hotel (From York Press)

Best Western Monkbar Hotel

1:18pm Tuesday 25th August 2009 in

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PUPILS who come to the Best Western Monkbar Hotel in York for work experience, really get a taste of what it is like to enjoy the world of work.

A quarter of the Monkbar’s 50 full-time workforce are members of the Five Year Silver Club having notched up more than five years employment there. Of them, five are in the exclusive Gold Club, having dedicated more than ten years’ service to the hotel. In a sector renowned for quick staff turnover, that is a true measure of work satisfaction.

The pupils also get to understand the environmentally conscious world they will inherit by seeing all the reasons why the hotel has earned a bronze award in the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

They include encouraging guests to explore the city on foot, working with suppliers who also have green credentials and reducing lighting consumption by more than 50 per cent.

Both of these aspects of the Monkbar Hotel are good enough reasons to pitch for both the Employer and Education Link category as well as the Think Green title in The Press Business Awards 2009.

The hotel works closely with education bodies and establishments throughout York to encourage young people to learn about the hospitality industry through direct experience.

Its strong educational stance as well as its support for its employees, are among the reasons that the three star hotel has been shortlisted in the prestigious Considerate Hotel Of The Year Awards 2009.

One partnership, with Yearsley Grove Primary School, York, aimed to encourage pupils to choose healthy school dinners. The successful initiative was led by former head chef Dave Asbury, who visited pupils weekly to discuss how food was sourced and to conduct simple cookery tasks with tasting sessions.

Working with the North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership, the hotel also hosts an educational programme each year, which sees primary school leavers spending a day at the hotel, working through the departments and getting a feel for the work ethic and standards.

It also offers hands-on experience and placement opportunities to students of all ages and abilities at primary, secondary and college level.

And every year it stages a free Yearsley Year Six Leavers’ Ball. The 11-year-olds attend meetings with hotel employees to organise the event, agreeing the theme and decorations, researching the menu and exercising some responsibility and control of the budget.

Year Five pupils are interviewed Alan Sugar-style to select waiters and waitresses to serve on the evening after training in techniques, including how to fold napkins, set tables and carry plates.