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KFC to recruit 6,000 disadvantaged young people

By
Lily Walton
Published
November 14, 2022

KFC has launched a new recruitment scheme which has been designed to help 6,000 disadvantaged young people get a job at its restaurants.

The fast food chain, which employs 27,000 staff across 1,000 UK sites, has set the aim that by 2030 one third of its new hires will be people aged 16-24 who have faced barriers to employment. These barriers could include social anxiety or English not being their first language.

Together with charity UK Youth it has created a programme 'Hatch'. It was piloted in Manchester with more than 80 young people and half of the candidates who completed the scheme, which includes one-to-one training and practical work experience, found full-time employment. Now the programme will be scaled up to recruit 500 people into KFC locations around the UK in 2023.

According to the Office for National Statistic there were around 158,000 job vacancies across the hospitality industry during the last quarter.

Meghan Farren, general manager at KFC UK and Ireland, said: "If we're to tackle the labour shortage and provide better jobs and economic growth across the country for the next generation, then we urgently need to help young who have been excluded from education and training opportunities to find their feet and their voice in the workplace."

KFC and UK Youth are jointly asking the government to fund a scheme to help businesses and youth organisations offer training to disadvantaged young people.