Lynne Kennedy, Social Mobility Manager at Greene King, reflects on this year’s Unlocking Hospitality recruitment campaign, where the team hosted 34 events across 33 prisons in just two weeks.
The Greene King journey
Since launching our Releasing Potential programme in 2019, Greene King has been dedicated to helping prison leavers secure employment and rebuilding their lives. Through our partnership with New Futures Network, and wider partners including Only a Pavement Away and Recruitment Junction, we’ve supported 275 prison leavers (to date) into jobs at Greene King pubs, by providing training and helping prisoners to develop the skills they need to secure and sustain a role with us on release.
Unlocking Hospitality
Unlocking Hospitality is an industry specific recruitment drive created by New Futures Network, focusing on showcasing hospitality careers through events in prisons across England and Wales. Greene King was one of 29 hospitality employers involved in this campaign.
Over two weeks we hosted 34 events, highlighting the various roles and opportunities at Greene King open to prison leavers, to help them build a sustainable career in hospitality.
Our team, including Business Development Managers and General Managers from our pub operations, delivered Master Chef competitions designed to replicate the pace and pressure of a professional kitchen. We also organized motivational employability events focused on developing a range of soft skills, including communication, team building, and resilience. These events gave over 330 candidates the opportunity to hear about career opportunities with Greene King and practice their interview skills.
Cooking in a pressured environment, although still fun, showed more employability skills than just cooking in a normal workshop when you can take your time. If all prisoners buy into the opportunities available, they can fully turn their lives around.
Reflections from the Events
The Unlocking Hospitality events are a brilliant way to engage with a wealth of talented individuals who are looking for an opportunity to reintegrate into society.
We are continuing to explore opportunities for the candidates that we met throughout the two weeks. With the support of our partners—New Futures Network, Novus, Only A Pavement Away, and the Recruitment Junction—we will assist these individuals in navigating the challenging path to employment upon release. Our goal is to help them build and enjoy successful and rewarding careers in hospitality.
The success of Unlocking Hospitality has already led to recruitment from the events, with more to follow in the new year.
Looking forward
Our overall aim is to continue to equip candidates with the skills and confidence needed for employment post release.
We are committed to supporting a total of 400 prison leavers into employment with Greene King by the end of 2025 through our Releasing Potential programme.
To help us to reach this goal, we opened our first Releasing Potential Academy at HMP Thameside in August 2022 and recently opened a fourth at HMP Onley. These training kitchens offer hands-on experience in food preparation and food hygiene and help to replicate real Greene King pub kitchen and working environments. At HMP Onley, assisted by our suppliers, we have also introduced a Greene King pub restaurant facility providing front of house customer service training.
If you are an employer or represent an organisation that can provide employment or resettlement support and would like to get involved in future Unlocking events, get in touch via newfuturesnetwork@justice.gov.uk.
By Lynne Kennedy, Social Mobility Manager, Greene King