At the end of June, the Institute of Hospitality (IoH) Scotland was delighted to welcome representatives of HOSPA to the Scottish Parliament for a highly productive reception – hosted by Emma Harper, MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) for South Scotland, and organised by IoH Scotland – for MSPs and over 70 of Scotland’s hospitality leaders and educationalists.
The guest speakers were Richard Lochhead MSP, Scotland’s Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade, and IoH Chief Executive Robert Richardson FIH MI.
In her welcoming speech, Emma Harper said: "I am delighted to be sponsoring the IoH this evening at the Scottish Parliament to promote careers in the hospitality industry as well as the importance of hospitality to the Scottish economy. More than ever, we need the levels of staff skills and the supply of talented people coming into the industry from our colleges and universities to meet the ever-growing demand for Scotland’s unrivalled scenery and landscapes.”
She went on to praise the excellent work of the IoH and gave HOSPA a special mention. She said a key recruitment challenge for Scotland’s hospitality industry was to make lecturers and careers officers, school-leavers and their parents aware of the unrivalled breadth of exciting careers offered by the hospitality industry. These ranged from hotels, restaurants, and pubs, to contract and welfare catering, forces catering, air and sea catering, tourist attraction catering, and outside catering. In addition, there were the popular, highly skilled, and traditionally respected disciplines covered by HOSPA – namely, hospitality finance and revenue management, marketing and asset management, and IT management.
Emma Harper MSP is pictured at the reception talking to HOSPA’s Penn Chai and Barry Winter about the Association’s work and learning programmes.