“By 2025, Ireland’s hotel industry will need 80,000 to 100,000 extra people and that’s on top of the 230,000 people already employed, and excluding spin-off industries.”
Rising and escalating costs, accommodation and finding the right team members are the key challenges facing the tourism industry here in Ireland. This is according to Aaron Mansworth, Managing Director of the Trigon Hotel Group.
“We need to have a greater awareness of the opportunities available in the hospitality sector and the rapid-progression that’s available to people entering the industry,” said Mr Mansworth.
He said that Trigon, as a hotel group is finding that more and more there is a lack of accommodation for team members:
“We need people to come into this industry and the biggest thing that will give hotels a competitive advantage is if they have staff accommodation. Hotels used to provide this but few do so now.”
Mr Mansworth added:
“Resorts like Ashford Castle and the Europe Resort have each invested over €3 million in the last few years to offer high-end staff accommodation in bespoke buildings on their resorts. The challenge in a city to do this is daunting when accommodation is in such demand. I have recently spoken to hospitality students and graduates outside of Ireland where I attended career briefings in Copenhagen, Sweden and at a Chicago hotel college, and there needs to be a lot of accommodation for people if they are to come to Ireland to work. By 2025, Ireland’s hotel industry will need 80,000 to 100,000 extra people and that’s on top of the 230,000 people already employed, and excluding spin-off industries.”
Trigon is currently running Ireland’s only Trainee Management Development Programme of its kind with City and Guilds accreditation. They have recently seen the first set of participants graduate from the course with very impressive new skills and qualifications.
Managers say participants are more confident, engaged and have the doors open to a whole new set of possibilities as a result of their training and studies. Graduates have the opportunity to progress very quickly within the group once they complete this course, going from entry-level jobs to General Managers and Sales Manager level. Reflecting on this Mr Mansworth said:
“Training and development of our teams is key to the culture within Trigon Hotels and this programme is proving to be a vital fit into team growth and development across the three hotels. The introduction of benchmarking has also been a beneficial process measuring the performance of the company’s products, people, services and processes to help us to be the best in industry and to identify internal opportunities for improvement.”
Trigon Hotels will hold a Recruitment Fair at the Metropole Hotel, Cork on Tuesday, April 30 from 2pm to 7pm.
Whether hoping to find a fresh start, a better job, or a new career direction, job seekers will find a wealth of exciting opportunities across all three properties at Cork Airport Hotel, The Metropole Hotel and Cork International Hotel. Trigon’s HR Team and a variety of team members will be interviewing on the day for openings in a wide range of fields.
