Accor Hotels is set to invest £5m into its employee training with plans to create 3,500 jobs in the UK by 2015 through schemes such as apprenticeships and giving unemployed people opportunities in the industry.

The hotel chain has announced a new people development strategy across its network of 185 hotels in the UK, which will include a new campus in London – the Académie Accor - a professional training centre for its staff.

Accor has signed a partnership with Babcock to further develop its apprenticeship scheme. This year, the Management Apprenticeship Programme will employ 100 young people (aged 18-24) giving them on-the-job training and an NVQ qualification. Accor also has a Student Placement Internships scheme that will offer 100 placements each year to students on UK hospitality courses at five different universities.

Finally, Accor UK has launched an ‘In to Work’ programme named ‘Hospitality Futures’ with the charity, Springboard. It will offer 25 young unemployed people aged 18-24 a starting job in the hospitality industry.

Thomas Dubaere, managing director, Accor UK and Ireland, said: “Now more than ever, finding and developing talent is vital to achieving our ambitious growth strategy. This is why we are making this significant investment.

“Hospitality is a very promising career path. Indeed the vast majority of our senior managers started as trainees at one of our hotels.”