New partnership offers free hospitality and mental health training

Small Batch Learning (SBL) is an online training platform which provides workplace learning for hospitality businesses and their staff; now in response to the global coronavirus pandemic the platform is free to all hospitality workers.

Not only that but SBL has partnered with Healthy Hospo to promote mental and physical wellbeing in the industry. Healthy Hospo is a not-for-profit which is dedicated to providing health and wellness training to hospitality professionals.

“The goal of Small Batch Learning was to deliver venues and groups an online training platform that they can use to train the staff on all the relevant aspects of hospitality,” Co-Founder and COO Duncan Campbell told Bars and Clubs.

“We could see how expensive it was to get people trained and often that training would cover things that don’t actually impact a person’s ability to do their job. It’s focused on food safety certificates or hygiene certificates, which are important but for a person who has never stepped foot in a bar before it wouldn’t give them the tools they need to succeed.

“But with venues being shutdown they don’t need to use the platform, so we decided to give access to individuals to use the platform, and we have partnered with Healthy Hospo so that when they sign up and log in the first thing they are taken to is the mental health course.”

He added: “There have always been serious mental and physical health issues facing our industry, which unfortunately were often pushed aside or even laughed off. But now, with many hospitality staff finding themselves suffering from a new kind of pressure, covid-19 has thrust hospitality’s wellbeing firmly under the spotlight.

Whether you’re waiting to get a team back to work, or sadly have lost your job, this partnership with Healthy Hospo will help businesses and individuals better promote mental health.”

The Healthy Hospo course provides education, practical advice and inspiration to help hospitality professionals lead healthier and happier lives. There is also now an additional lesson that focuses on isolation.

Campbell told Bars and Clubs: “The core part of the course is around healthy mind, healthy body and looking at the affects that diet has on your mental health, sleeping, stress and burnout. The science behind stress is quite interesting and if you look at this from a COVID perspective and what’s going on the stress of isolation definitely comes into it as well.”

Small Batch Learning has around 20 hours’ worth of content in its training library which covers everything from how to shake a cocktail to garnishing different cocktail families and other relevant aspects of hospitality training.

There are courses on tasting and recommending wines and spirits to help build knowledge and confidence in selling and recommending products.

For new independent learners, since their learner account stays with them for life, if they start to train on Small Batch Learning now as an individual, and then later start a new job where the team is also using Small Batch Learning, they (and their learning record) can be added to that outlet without any fuss – and no need to repeat the same training.

For more information on Small Batch Learning, visit www.smallbatchlearning.com or email hello@smallbatchlearning.com. You can also visit the Healthy Hospo website for more information.