Progress in profession

A career in the pub trade may have been laughed at thirty years ago, but these days, good training ensures the trade offers more than just a job.

Pub? Career? You've got to be kidding! At least that would have been the reaction from the ambitious jobseeker 30 years ago. And to tell the truth most would probably have the same reaction today. The difference is that pub companies actually offer a pretty good career structure these days.

The boom in managed houses in the 1990s, both on the high street and among food-led pubs in the suburbs, not to mention employment legislation, brought a fresh impetus to the drive to de-casualise pub staff.

Where pub operators were once content to give a cash-in-hand shift or three to Sadie's best friend's niece when they were short, there grew up a new appreciation of recruiting and retaining trained people.

Like any hospitality business, there will always be a need for casual, seasonal and part-time employees, of course. But the industry has become better at developing a stable core of staff who are reliable, can maintain standards and become the managers and operations staff of the future.

This is achieved by good induction - casual barstaff often don't know which company they are working for and a training programme linked to a transparent career path signposted by qualifications and the opportunity for promotion.

When a new recruit joins a managed outlet these days the possibility that they might, not too many years ahead, be running their own pub should be clearly laid out before them.

The old objection to training pub staff, the vicious circle that says we won't train anyone because they won't be here for long, so they don't stay for long, is being broken - at least in the managed sector. But what about the rest of the industry?

There are many freetraders and lessees who are brilliant trainers and who see the value of developing loyalty among staff. In rural locations this is a necessity - the local labour market can be a little thin on the ground.

But as everyone needs to meet higher standards, both because the customers expect it and legislation demands it, good employment practices need to run deeper and wider throughout the trade.

There is still plenty to do in terms of corporate and independent pubs getting together and presenting the industry as a great place to work, not just to make a few bob in the evenings but to stay and make a career of it.

That depends on driving home the idea that being a licensee is a profession as good as any other and having the recognised qualifications on offer that can measure and and credit that professionalism.

The British Institute of Innkeeping, which has now shortened its name to the snappier BII, has been working hard to put that structure of nationally recognised qualifications in place.

There are two strands to this. A series of exams based on legal requirements, with the new National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders - now one of the compulsory qualifications needed to get a personal licence - as the foundation, and the Portable Business Portfolio, covering the business building aspects.

This is just the beginning. But it means that, one day, publicans will be able to hold their heads high among the rest of society's professionals.