Discover how we’re working with The King’s Trust as a delivery parter on the ‘Get Started’ programme, helping young people take their first steps in hospitality.
By Liza
In 2023 Eat Club successfully became delivery partners for the King’s Trust ‘Get Started’ programme, that we have since delivered four times over the past year and a half. This partnership has enabled us to deliver free cooking and hospitality career courses for young people aged 16 to 30 who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). Together we have created a supportive environment where these young people can gain new skills, build confidence, and take meaningful steps toward a successful future career in the hospitality industry or elsewhere.
The NEET Landscape in the UK
Our work is rooted in a clear need. Across the UK, too many young people find themselves out of employment, education or training (NEET). According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), between October and December 2024, around 987,000 young people aged 16 to 24 were NEET, representing 13.4% of this age group—an increase of 110,000 compared with the same period in 2023 (ONS, 2025).
These figures highlight the scale of the issue and the importance of offering practical pathways into sustainable work.
Helping Young People Build a Future
Our week-long Cooking and Hospitality Career Course is designed to help young people explore potential careers within the food and hospitality industry.
Led by our team of professional chefs, the course combines teaching hands-on cooking skills and tricks of the trade, as well as real life industry experience. Each course includes at least one work experience day with a hospitality partner, giving participants the chance to experience what front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) roles are really like in a professional setting. These take place at the kitchens of our hospitality partners, such as Caravan and The Dusty Knuckle.
By the end of the course participants leave with a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene certificate, professional cooking skills, barista training, and most importantly, greater confidence to secure their first job in hospitality.
How Partnerships can Support Young People to Achieve More
2 years into our partnership with The King’s Trust, we are reflecting on the journey so far and looking to highlight one of our proudest achievements delivering a multilingual course to young refugees and migrants.
In February this year, we delivered our third course as part of the ‘Get Started’ programme, in partnership with IRMO, a Brixton based charity supporting young Latin Americans in the UK. This particular course required extra efforts from the IRMO youth workers and our team, to work together and translate into Spanish every word from the course for those young people who didn’t speak English.
After a couple of days learning professional cooking skills from Eat Club’s team, the group were welcomed by the Caravan Restaurant for a work experience day. The participants, who had never had a job or any hospitality experience, were excited by the opportunity to go behind the scenes making pizza in the kitchen, cocktails at the bar and waiting tables during the lunch service.
Christina, Caravan’s King’s Cross AGM, described the experience:
“We hosted 14 amazing kids and they were absolutely brilliant. We had them in the kitchen, at the bar, and on the floor, showing them what it’s like to work with customers and a team. We taught them how to handle the pressure of a busy lunch service, because life is all about pressure. They had fun—and no one cried—so I think it went pretty well.”
Ana, an Employment Support Worker and Mentor at IRMO, highlighted just how important these opportunities can be:
“Many of the young people we work with believe their only career option is cleaning because they can do it without speaking English. This course gives them a hands-on industry day with real-world experience. These are valuable skills they can use for their first job, showing them they are capable of so much more and have the potential to pursue other opportunities.”
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What the Participants Thought
The impact of the course was most powerfully expressed by the young people themselves.
Johnson, 17, shared:
“I feel that everything I learn will help me in the future, even if it’s from the kitchen or cleaning. We have to enjoy everything we do because it will all contribute to our future. I’m learning about the kitchen, the bar, and even how to talk to customers. All of these things will definitely help me.”
Andreas, also 17, reflected on how the course built both his confidence and his creativity:
“This course will help me a lot with my CV and finding a job, as many roles require work experience. I think that everything I’ve learned from this course will help me not only in my professional life but also in my personal life.
I love art and want to go into architecture, and the creative skills I’ve gained here will help me a lot with that. For example, when you prepare a dish, you have to be creative and pay attention to how it looks. This is very similar to the creativity needed for art.
Working with chefs and having these different roles has helped me build my confidence and practice my leadership skills. It’s also helped me develop close relationships with the other participants, and now some of them are my friends.”
Creating Change Together
Looking back at the impact of the work we have delivered with the King’s Trust over the past two years, we can proudly say that our courses provide young people with a unique opportunity in an increasingly competitive job market. By combining technical training with real industry experience, our courses do more than provide employable skills. They help young people build confidence, broaden their horizons, and prove that with the right support every young person can gain meaningful employment they enjoy.
We’d like to thank those who have supported us so far in delivering the ‘Get Started’ programme; The King’s Trust, Stratford Youth Zone, IRMO, 21 Sid, Caravan King’s Cross Restaurant and The Dusty Knuckle.
We’d love to partner with more hospitality organisations to provide many more invaluable work experience days to young people, so please do get in touch with us if you can help info@eat-club.org
Our Upcoming Course
We are now recruiting for our next and final ‘Get Started’ Cooking and Hospitality Career Course for 2025!
Taster Day: Monday 29th September
Full Course: 6th–10th October
Location: Hackney
Participants will learn directly from industry professionals, gain hands-on work experience, achieve a Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene Certificate, and connect with like-minded young people who are exploring opportunities in hospitality.
If you are aged 16 to 30 and live in or around Hackney, click here to find out more and sign up.
Or if you know of any young person who is NEET in Hackney please share this opportunity with them to kickstart their hospitality career!