Pho recruits nine young people to new Manchester branch

The Factory Youth Zone, a charity run youth centre, which welcomes 1,000 young people each week, hosted an open recruitment day for those interested in a career in hospitality.

Pho’s head of people, Lucy Taylor, led a training session with 11 recruits and hosted a series of mock interviews. The recruits also spent a day training in Pho’s Leeds restaurant with the front of house team.

Each of the candidates got to do a week of work experience in various customer service roles at local businesses including the James Martin Manchester restaurant. Then the 11 candidates got to interview with Pho’s general manager for a job at the new 200-seat Manchester site. Pho has now employed nine of the candidates.  

Taylor said: “Working with The Factory Youth Zone and the young people has been a fantastic experience and we are so happy to have made so many successful hires. All of the recruits were so engaged throughout their training and their effort has paid off for them.”

She said that the chain plans to work with similar programmes across the country.

Pho has 14 restaurants in the UK: 12 in London, one in Brighton and one in Leeds. It will open its doors in the Corn Exchange on 28 August 2015.