Bridging the skills gap through entrepreneurship: how McCain’s Streets Ahead programme Is shaping the future of hospitality
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The hospitality industry is facing a critical challenge: a growing skills shortage that threatens its ability to recover, grow, and innovate.
But while much of the focus has been on training existing workers, there’s another powerful way to build resilience—by investing in the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
The McCain Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB, was created to do exactly that. Focused on supporting individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to start their own street food businesses, the programme is more than just an enterprise initiative—it’s a blueprint for how grassroots entrepreneurship can help tackle systemic industry issues.
Entrepreneurship as a solution to sector kills gaps
By supporting new food startups, Streets Ahead is not only creating opportunities for individuals—it’s also nurturing a new wave of skilled, motivated business owners who contribute to the sector’s diversity, creativity, and economic health.
These entrepreneurs are employers, mentors, and innovators, each helping to build a more dynamic hospitality landscape.
But for many, the journey into business ownership is blocked by a lack of access to training, funding, or industry recognition. That’s where targeted policy change is essential.
Drawing on insights from our 2025 Streets Ahead Impact Report, McCain is calling for two key actions from government:
- Make levy-funded training more flexible for the food, drink, and hospitality sectors, supporting initiatives like the Hospitality Skills Passport that help startups build the skills they need—on their own terms.
- Include hospitality upskilling in the Comprehensive Strategy for Post-16 Education, ensuring food entrepreneurship is treated as a viable career route and a driver of sector growth.
These asks are grounded in what we’ve seen through Streets Ahead: that the future of hospitality will be shaped not just by large employers, but by small, independent businesses led by people who often face the greatest barriers to entry.
A real-world model for inclusive growth
Streets Ahead supports individuals with lived experience of disadvantage—refugees, people with convictions, and those from low-income backgrounds—providing mentorship, enterprise support, and access to real trading opportunities.
At the same time, the programme is surfacing the policy barriers that hold entrepreneurs back—barriers we are now working to dismantle through evidence-based advocacy.
Turning insight into action
The Streets Ahead Impact Report is more than a record of programme success—it’s a call to action. It demonstrates how practical investment in people can address sector-wide challenges, and why government support must evolve to meet the needs of modern, inclusive entrepreneurship.
By bridging enterprise and policy, McCain is helping to build a hospitality industry that’s not only stronger, but fairer and more future-ready.
