Right attitude

The statistics make glum reading yet surely those who want to get a foothold on the career ladder can do so if they show enough determination.

At just 21, Gabor Vincze is the assistant manager at The Grange Hotel, Newark, thanks to his sheer enthusiasm and a desire to succeed. Despite lacking experience he was given a chance by the hotel’s owners and taken on for a trial period as a general assistant.

He impressed so much that he earned promotion, overcoming cultural differences and personal tragedy — his father, with whom Gabor first came to England in 2008 in order to find work, was killed in a car accident in their native Hungary.

Speaking of Gabor — named employee of the year at this year’s Newark Business Awards — Grange Hotel owner Mr Tom Carr said: “His enthusiasm for learning made training and developing his skills a pleasure.”

Despite the gloomy jobs market, employers are crying out for workers like Gabor.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver just last week spoke of the “workshy” generation of British youth when recruiting for his restaurants. In contrast, his young Polish and Lithuanian staff were “tough” “bulletproof” and “worked hard.”

Last year a director at retail giant Tesco, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, bemoaned the poor literacy and numeracy standards of school-leavers and said many had “what you might call an attitude problem.”

It makes you wonder how many of those unemployed young people are willing to take any job to get a foot in the door of a company or organisation in order to work hard and rise to bigger and better things. Or do too many expect instant success or think the world owes them a living?

Gabor’s success should be an inspiration to all young people in that hard work will be rewarded. Of course, that can be possible only if there is someone willing to give them a chance.