New £12m Premier Inn ready to open in Walsall
Staff are getting ready to open the doors of a new £12 million hotel in Walsall town centre.
The Premier Inn at Walsall Waterfront is poised to open on November 12 and will boast 100 bedrooms and a restaurant. Thirty-seven of the 65 new staff members taken on by the hotel have been given a helping hand by Walsall College.
The hotel set up a partnership with the college and Job Centre Plus to offer unemployed people a pre-employability course to make sure they had the skills needed. After successfully gaining five qualifications, 37 people were offered roles at the hotel including in housekeeping, guest services and hospitality.
Among those to secure a job was Karen Mai, of Darlaston.
The 38-year-old had been unemployed for four months and will now be working as a receptionist at the hotel.
"I was an admin clerk with a logistics company but struggled to find work after being made redundan," she said. "This course gave me the opportunity I needed to retrain in a different area and gain new customer service skills and qualifications."
Emily Bennett, new openings manager at Premier Inn, said: "Our partnership with Walsall College has meant that those people who took part in the pre-employment training course, and progressed to working in our hotel will have a great start to their new jobs."
