business matters

What Lies Beneath

Southern Testing are currently involved in an interesting job which required a great deal of technical expertise.

Andrew Holley MSc FGS

Senior Geological Engineer, Southern Testing Laboratories

A significant ground collapse occurred in October 2020 beneath two potable water reservoirs in Maidstone, Kent. The collapsed ground caused significant damage to the reservoir structures, which resulted in the loss of a valuable water supply asset. Works are ongoing to improve both the ground beneath the reservoir and repair the structures.

The ground collapse is believed to be associated with a natural geological hazard, and such collapses are not uncommon in the Barming Heath region of Maidstone. However, the collapse that occurred was unprecedented in its magnitude.

The specific cause of the collapsed ground was very likely due to broad vertical fractures or ‘Gulls’ in the underlying bedrock, which are often filled with wind-blown Aeolian deposits (usually silt/fine sands), or which may contain soil that originates from the overlying geology. The infill soils are liable to collapse if they become inundated with water. These Gull features were formed by a geological process called cambering that probably occurred during ice age periods, at which time the South of England was experiencing a periglacial climate. Cambering may have developed when valley erosion occurred in clay strata which is capped by a brittle Limestone rock in this part of Kent. This erosion caused this overlying rock to fracture, due to stress relief, and then migrate towards the valley centre causing the fractures and Gulls.

As the site is of great strategic importance to the local population, it was necessary for the team of consultants and contractors to work closely in order to provide the right solution to enable one of the reservoir structures to be repaired and put back into service quickly. This included thorough investigations of the underlying geology to help develop a ground model, which was undertaken by Southern Testing, and involved Dynamic probing within the reservoir structures themselves.

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Hospitality Rocks

It has been widely reported in the press that the hospitality sector is facing significant challenges.

Stephen Burkes

Director of Sussex Skills Solutions, East Sussex College Group

As we cautiously emerge from pandemic status and transition into a society that has to learn to live with COVID, the hospitality sector has been at the forefront of another potentially contagious issue. Skills shortages.

Although skills shortages in hospitality will thankfully not impact our health, they will impact our well-being and our return to enjoying the activities we have for so long taken for granted.

On the surface it is easy to look at the headline data and say that although unemployment remains higher than prepandemic levels, there has never been such a healthy supply of job vacancies advertised for potential applicants.

This would be a fantastic scenario were the simple sum true that all of those who are unemployed actually wanted to attach to all of those available vacancies. Unfortunately, this will likely not be the case, leaving employers fighting over talent, driving up salaries in the short term and fueling rapid inflation. Not ideal conditions for a nation in record levels of debt. So how do we reverse the trend?

Taking hospitality in isolation but creating a model that has a transferable concept and which could be used in other sectors facing skills shortages, East Sussex College Group working closely in tandem with Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce and the Dept of Work & Pensions set about developing a campaign to promote working in hospitality. With the early support and backing of Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell, the “Hospitality Rocks” campaign was launched in August 2021 and will run through until January 2022.

Collectively, we built the campaign around the following 3 objectives:

We need more people to recognise the sector as an ambitious career option. We need more people to understand how the industry has taken enormous strides to protect its staff from infection.

We need greater flexibility and understanding from employers about bringing new talent into a sector who may not have the previous experience often asked for in job adverts.

With these core themes underpinning our actions, the campaign began to take shape with a wide range of collaborative activities planned under the “Hospitality Rocks” umbrella.

Piers Harrison Customer Service Leader DWP, “The first thing we looked at was how to create a consistent brand for the scheme which could be shared across all of our job centres and partners. A media pack was created with unique posters and video content which is displayed in all of our job centre sites across Sussex and beyond until January 2022. We are committed to ensuring our customers take the time to consider hospitality as one of their options. We know the sector needs new personalities to help it thrive and get back to pre-pandemic levels of business”

Christina Ewbank Chief Executive Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce, “At the Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce we recognise what a tough time the hospitality and retail sectors have had during the pandemic which is compounded by a shortage of staff as we come out of furlough. This is impacting the service these businesses can deliver and the profit they can generate, which is vital after such a tough 18 months. In terms of attracting talent, experience is not important as skills can be trained, but personality and a positive attitude are vital”.

Dan Shelley Executive Director East Sussex College Group, “This is such a big issue, it will take a range of support to help the sector get the workforce it needs. The DWP’s expertly executed “Hospitality Rocks” campaign has allowed our collective organisations to tap into a range of different approaches and promote the sector while maintaining a consistent theme and brand for the individuals we are aiming to attract.”

To date, under Hospitality Rocks, Eastbourne Chambers have already established a comprehensive job matching service linking local employers to East Sussex College’s summer student leavers and also those students seeking part-time work to support their studies.

In addition, Eastbourne Chambers have also arranged a careers assessment day, giving both employers and potential employees the opportunity to demonstrate what they have to offer without overly relying on a single face-to-face interview to make decisions on appointments.

Another core component of Hospitality Rocks is a bespoke sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP) designed by East Sussex College in partnership with the Employer Advisor teams of DWP.

Steve Benwell Senior Partnership Manager DWP, “SWAPs are short, sharp, intensive training programmes, designed to provide the core skills, knowledge and behaviours required of a sector and linking those attributes to actual live job vacancies. To be classed as a SWAP we have to guarantee a job interview for all of the participants. This means the programme has a clear goal and we can measure almost in real-time the impacts and successes of the project.”

Stephen Burkes Director East Sussex College, “The Hospitality Rocks SWAP was built to attract new entrants into the sector. We’ve run other SWAPs for the hospitality sector in the past which focused on linking

staff with prior knowledge or skills to new job roles by providing key qualifications that employers wanted such as personal alcohol licences or food hygiene certificates, but for this project we changed our tactics. For this SWAP we wanted to encourage people who had never considered hospitality before to try their hand at learning some new skills in a fun and engaging way while building in employer talks to do some myth-busting about working in the sector.”

Fun may be at the core of this SWAP but its goals and ambition couldn’t be more serious. Learners are led through a 5 day programme of hands-on activities including cocktail making using the latest mixology skills, coffee making using industry standard barista equipment, silver service setting and napkin art. These practical skills supported with group activities to promote working with a positive mindset, team working and interview preparation. The course is guided by knowledgeable tutors to support, encourage and enable the learners, going the extra mile to make sure that they enjoy the experience and see the benefits and excitement that the sector provides.

Pilots of this SWAP model were delivered in Hastings, Eastbourne and Lewes during August, attracting over 30 unemployed individuals to participate, the vast majority of which had no prior experience of working in the sector. As expected, many took to the course to learn these new skills for personal reasons or out of intrigue rather than anticipating a move into the industry. But following 5 days of intensive but highly enjoyable training, 24 interviews were held with Rustico, The Grand Hotel Eastbourne and the De La Warr Pavilion on 3rd September with Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell in attendance to oversee the hive of activity. From this impressive start, 18 job trials were offered and to date, four jobs have been accepted with more anticipated.

Caroline Ansell MP for Eastbourne, “I am a big supporter of Hospitality Rocks and I am delighted the concept is now going regional after such a successful start in Eastbourne. Any initiative that promotes skills, confidence and directly connects local people with local employers is to be commended. It is also a brilliant collaboration for East Sussex Coll ege with the Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and I am also pleased it is supported by Eastbourne Unltd Chamber of Commerce.”

Following this highly successful pilot, the training programme is now being pushed out across West Sussex and Surrey, with another 10 programmes being timetabled before Christmas to allow participation across the county and beyond. The model is also being shared nationally across DWP as a case study of good practice, highlighting how effective the work of partnerships can be to tackle complex challenges. A great result for Sussex!

If you are an employer from the hospitality sector and you would like support from the “Hospitality Rocks” campaign to help you recruit new talent, contact your local job centre for more information.

“For this SWAP we wanted to encourage people who had never considered hospitality before to try their hand at learning some new skills in a fun and engaging way while building in employer talks to do some myth-busting about working in the sector.”