If elected to power, the Conservatives have pledged to set up a ‘Service Academy’ that they claim would create up to 50,000 training places and work placements for the unemployed in partnership with business.

Eleven employers in the hospitality, leisure and tourism sector have already signed up to the scheme, which forms part of the Tories’ ‘Get Britain Working’ welfare reform plans. The aim is to provide “pre-employment” training designed by the industry itself to ensure that applicants develop the basic and soft skills required to work in the sector.

Theresa May, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said during the launch of the initiative at a Conservative Party jobs summit held at Microsoft: “The creation of a Service Academy will not only give people practical skills, but also an entry route into a career in a growing area of business.”

The organisations that have already signed up to the initiative comprise Barcelo Hotels and Resorts, Bourne Leisure, Gala Coral Group, Guoman and Thistle Hotels, the InterContinental Hotel Group, Merlin Entertainments Group, Pizza Express, Sodexo, Startbucks, Travelodge and Whitbread.

Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne, who was also present at the summit, said: “The argument is that we need a sustainable private sector recovery to create new jobs and that we cannot go on relying on the public sector to provide the great majority of new jobs.”

But Employment Minister Jim Knight told the Telegraph newspaper: “This is a pale imitation of what the government is already doing – and without the investment needed to deliver it.”