Whitbread PLC Franchise and ThirdForce Celebrate 1000th Skills for Life Learner

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September 08, 2010 // Franchising.com // Whitbread PLC the UK's leading restaurant and hotel group and ThirdForce the technology enabled learning solutions and services company are proud to celebrate the achievement of the 1000th Skills for Life learner on the Whitbread programme.

Sarah Brind was the 1000th learner to complete her Skills for Life qualification as part of the Whitbread Apprenticeship programme. Sarah is a Team Manager at the Hampton Inn Table Table and Premier Inn in Salisbury and joined 5 years ago as a Team member but was swiftly promoted within the business after just 3 months service.

Sarah admitted that she hadn't been confident learning literacy and numeracy skills at school and thought that a Skills for Life qualification would be really beneficial to her. She highlighted how much more confident she now is with her new skills. Applying numeracy skills on shift she's been able to cope if a till goes down or to calculate VAT or promotional discounts in her head "now I know I can do it!" said Sarah.

Sarah took 2-3 months to achieve both literacy and numeracy qualifications on the el-box tablet PC on site in the restaurant and her achievement is even more impressive because she is deaf. Her Manager Rob Williams summed up her winning attitude as "she never lets it be a problem and she's a real credit to the team leading by her example."

Lorna Tyrtania Senior Product Manager at ThirdForce presented Sarah with a certificate of achievement and a well deserved bottle of champagne to mark this special occasion commenting "ThirdForce are delighted to be able to celebrate this important milestone, which is indicative of the success of the blended approach to Skills for Life in the Whitbread programme and of the dedication and sheer hard work of inspirational learners like Sarah and our team of Learning Support Managers".

Sarah's Learning Support Manager (LSM) Cathy Vaissieres-Brien was also present to celebrate the day. There was an obvious rapport between Cathy and Sarah. Sarah said Cathy was a "great help", even reading the literacy questions for Sarah to lip read, to help with her understanding of the questions in the final exam.

Sarah will now go on to complete the rest of her Whitbread Apprenticeship programme, a scheme which continues to lead the way in terms of engagement and best practice Apprenticeship delivery.

Notes to Editors

Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group operating market-leading businesses in the budget hotels and restaurant sectors. Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa Coffee. Whitbread PLC employs over 34,000 people and serves 10 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK. In the year ended 4 March 2010, Whitbread PLC reported a 7.5% increase in Group Revenue to £1,435.0 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £239.1 million up 6.6%.The company is Investors in People-accredited and has made the Skills Pledge.

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