New portal aims to ease staffing crisis

Tourism businesses to be given free listing

Tourism businesses are being asked to promote vacancies free on a new national jobs portal as the hospitality sector in places including Oban suffers a serious staffing crisis.

The double whammy of the pandemic and Brexit has left some businesses prone to operating at skeleton staffing levels, while the official departure from the European Union has resulted in a shortage of overseas workers, officials say.

And with areas such as Argyll and Bute only having a limited number of young people compared to urban areas, the rural economy is often hit harder than the cities.

The campaign hopes to link people in Scotland looking for work with vacancies across the country.

Employers are being encouraged to list parttime and full-time vacancies on a portal called Careerscope.

Users create a profile which can then be matched with suitable vacancies.

There are more than 1,100 vacancies in Scotland on the portal with more than 45 of these in Oban, Fort William, Jura, Dunbartonshire and Helensburgh.

Careerscope can be accessed at https://bit. ly/3qREIGN Businesses are being encouraged to add more vacancies and get involved by sharing the campaign on their social media channels using the hashtag #DoWhatYouLove.

The project is overseen by the Scottish Tourism Alliance and backed with funding from the Scottish Government.

It has won the support of Andrew Spence, chief executive of the BID4Oban business group.

Mr Spence said: ‘It’s a positive approach as there are areas of Scotland with unemployment and people looking for jobs and they may wish to come and work in areas like ours – providing they can get the accommodation.

‘There are a lot of vacancies across the town and a lot of businesses are struggling to find people to fill them, so anything that helps to address that situation has to be welcome.’

The Scottish Tourism Alliance said business should, as far as possible, list the roles as flexible and not requiring experience, to encourage applications from more young people.

Further information can be found at the Visit Scotland website which has a dedicated ‘recruitment campaign toolkit’ for businesses at https:// bit.ly/3ytGv7E

Ivan McKee, business and tourism minister with the Scottish Government, said: ‘Tourism and hospitality businesses have been extremely hard hit by the pandemic and the ability to employ committed, talented and enthusiastic staff will be an important part of the recovery.

‘There are a host of job opportunities that need to be filled right now to suit a range of passions and interests and the possibilities for a career in hospitality are endless.’