Last Thursday was an amazing day for for the whole team at Le Manoir, and also a rather lovely day for me!

On Thursday afternoon, Le Manoir's General Manager, the superb Philip Newman-Hall took a team of people from Le Manoir to the Springboard Awards of Excellence being held in London that evening. The Springboard Awards are the industry equivalent of The Oscars for HR and Learning and Development..

Le Manoir had been shortlisted in not one or two but FOUR different categories:

Best Recruitment Initiative Award
The Education Pipeline Award
The Best Student Placement Provider
The Young People Award

You can imagine the excitement of the team as they gathered for these important awards/ To be shortlisted in these different categories was significant in itself. However, as the evening progressed, it became clear that this was much, much more! The teams at Le Manoir won in every single category! The compère said at one stage (I am reliably informed - I was elsewhere) "It's probably not worth sitting down…!".

The Best Recruitment Initiative Award: the team at Le Manoir created a special website and social media campaign to recruit new tutors for the Cookery School: with resounding success! We have some superb new tutors at the school.

The other three awards all recognise the amazing work at Le Manoir to encourage young people into our wonderful industry. From developing relationships with educational establishments - from nurseries to schools, colleges and universities, to delivering tours and experiences for all the students who visit us here.

All our departments deliver an incredible work experience for students: gardens, kitchens, housekeeping, Cookery School, restaurant, sommeliers. We have Springboard Ambassadors who spend time sharing their knowledge and creating learning experiences for the students who join us at Le Manoir.

Mourad and Ian have created internships within their departments and provided positions within their teams to develop the next generation. And Gary, who has pioneered support for five work experience opportunities in our kitchens at any time, and is tireless in promoting the employment of 16-18 years olds in the kitchen. Finally, of course, Philip, our urbane, suave and unflappable General Manager, who provides so much support and investment for these initiatives.

As Julia Murrell, our director of HR said: "Our work with schools and colleges has now made this our Number One recruitment method. In the past year alone we have delivered 35 internships, 37 work experience opportunities and 70 stagiares which is an incredible amount and requires a lot of organisation and support from all departments."

As well as all the individuals who give so much time to making these opportunities so fulfilling and so exciting for our trainees, we are celebrating the wonder of the hospitality industry: yes, it is hard work, and tiring, but it is also fulfilling, rewarding and great fun. I hope that we at Le Manoir are all still doing our little bit to encourage more young people into the industry.

My last blog was about my pride in seeing those chefs who have passed through the kitchens at Le Manoir achieve enormous success in their own right. Today, we celebrate the recruitment and training of those at the beginning of their careers… and I hope that in a few years time, some of these young people will also be shining stars!

A little footnote: I was not at the Springboard Awards on Thursday because I was asked to attend the Observer Food Monthly Awards elsewhere in London, where I was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award by Jay Rayner and Gizzi Erskine. I am of course enormously proud to have been given this award, in recognition of the same things I have been writing about above: passing on our knowledge, our passion, our beliefs to the next generation. This is what I believe in, and what I strive for every day.

Congratulations to everyone at Le Manoir, and humble thanks from me to you all.

Best

RB

PS Please tell me what you think of my blogs and my website: I want to hear from you!

The DVD of Raymond Blanc's hugely successful five part series - The Very Hungry Frenchman - broadcast on BBC2 earlier this year, is now on sale.

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www.amazon.co.uk/The-Very-Hungry-Frenchman-DVD

If you would like a signed copy of the DVD, this can be ordered via Le Manoir's website. Please click on the link below and request a signed copy in the 'special instructions' box at checkout:

www.manoir.com/gift_shop

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