This figure is higher than in any other month of the year and is 16% ahead of the unfilled jobs reported for October 2003. According to the LSC, only 6% of employers that respond to its apprenticeship marketing campaigns are from the hospitality sector.

'Hospitality is a popular career choice for young people and we encourage employers to look beyond offering short-term jobs and use apprenticeships to deliver careers and long-term bottom-line business results', commented Stephen Gardner, director of work-based learning at the LSC.

One supporter of the apprenticeship approach is Compass chairman Sir Francis Mackay, who wants to boost the number of Compass apprentices from 800 to 2,000 by 2008.'Apprenticeships are vital to addressing the skills shortage that all industries are facing and can make a real difference to a company’s bottom-line results through increased staff retention, job competence and morale', he commented.