Across the hospitality and catering industry in the UK there are 2.64 million jobs, with the highest growth forecasts over the next five years for cooks, chefs, and kitchen and catering assistants.
You could progress from this pathway to becoming, among other things, a chef de partie, sous chef or head chef, who creates menus for a restaurant, cafeteria or catering establishment, managing the kitchen, monitoring costs and training staff. You can also progress onto roles outside the kitchen, becoming a restaurant manager, for example, running a restaurant, including hiring staff, scheduling rotas, managing bookings and monitoring budgets.
To be successful in this industry, you’ll need to be committed, resilient, understand that you won’t be working a traditional ‘nine to five’ role and have customer service at the core of everything you do.