The award-winning St Austell Brewery is expanding its industry-leading staff training to benefit other hospitality businesses across the South West. A refurbished training and development centre called Academy 1851 has opened at St Austell Brewery’s base in Cornwall to offer a range of practical training courses at varying levels for the licensed hospitality industry in the region to access.
Building on its already enviable success as a business renowned for its existing in-house investment in staff, the brewery is widening its training and development service to enable other South West companies to better train and develop their own staff without having to travel further afield. Academy 1851, which officially launched on Wednesday 4th November, will offer a one-stop shop for the region’s catering and hospitality businesses to access first-class industry training in the West country. Courses ranging from specialist Barista training and cellar management to, food hygiene and advanced wines and spirits will be available, and can be delivered on site at the customer’s premises in some cases..
Jackie Scarfe, People Director at St Austell Brewery, said: “St Austell Brewery has achieved incredible growth over the years, and we firmly believe that our success is due in large part to investing in our workforce, as by giving staff the very best training available, they grow along with the business.
“We are delighted to be able to widen the industry-leading training we offer with the launch of Academy 1851, which will directly benefit businesses across the South West in the hospitality sector. The facility will enable those working in pubs, hotels, restaurants and bars across the region to take advantage of the expertise, knowledge and experience we have accrued over the years.
“It is essential, especially in the South West, that we meet the ongoing challenges of recruiting and retaining staff in the hospitality industry, and our aim in creating Academy 1851 is to help businesses in this field to find it easier to support their staff to develop their careers, making their job prospects more attractive, and helping to keep the best staff in the region.”
Academy 1851 takes its name from the year St Austell Brewery was founded, with the company known to be one of the oldest businesses in Cornwall. The brewery’s own staff are already trained on site, along with staff working at many of the brewery’s tenanted public houses. The training facility is also already used to deliver some external training such as the Personal Licence qualification and Food Hygeine. Each course available at Academy 1851 will train delegates to the very highest industry standards in the chosen discipline, with specialised coaching provided from the brewery’s acclaimed in-house team, along with highly qualified professional freelance trainers with extensive experience in the sector.
St Austell Brewery is Grade 1 accredited with the BIIAB Bench Marketing and Accreditation Services, as well as a registered provider for the Wine & Spirits Education Trust and Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. It also works closely with the BIIAB, CPL and Truro and Penwith College to ensure all of its training courses remain at the highest industry standard.
For more information about Academy 1851 and the training courses available, visit www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/