‘The last thing I remember is being on the M60 – then my life changed forever’

Six days after a horrific motorbike crash, Kyle Vynne opened his eyes in a hospital ward with no idea how he got there. The 28-year-old had just woken up from a coma after being involved in an accident on the motorway six days beforehand.

“I don’t remember the accident itself, last thing I remember is 15 minutes prior to it. What I do remember is waking up in a coma ward with a nurse over me calming me down.” Kyle explained.

“I was on that many painkillers it was all a bit blurry. I was gutted that I broke my bike, I missed my little brother’s birthday and it was Covid times so I wasn’t allowed any visitors or anything like that.”

Kyle was a member of a motorbike club who, during lockdown, had arranged to go for a ride to the moors around Saddleworth^[3]. He was on his way home to Blackley^[4] via the M60^[5] when the devastating crash happened in September 2020.

The crash was life changing, leaving him with metal plates in his hip and a destroyed shin that he has to rebuild. It also ended Kyle’s career as a landscape gardener.

But, following 12 months in recovery, he found a new path when he decided to take on casual bar work after becoming ‘bored’ of being out of a job.

Kyle and his partner- Saskia outside the Old Monkey pub

Now, three years on from the accident, he is the landlord of the Old Monkey on Portland Street in Manchester city centre^[6]. Kyle got the keys to the pub four weeks ago after completing an in-house course by brewery Joseph Holt.

“I’ve never really had time off and I got bored quite easily,” he told the MEN. “For me as soon as I could get back to work, I got back to work.

“After the crash I couldn’t really do gardening anymore so I went into pubs. I saw a lot of opportunities that were there with the brewery. I got onto the progression course and decided I wanted to push this as far as I could and it’s worked out quite well for me.

“It’s been fantastic, in my third week I beat their all time record for sales and last week I beat it again. I’m excited to see what I can do with the place.”

The progression scheme was devised by Chloe Dickinson, training and development manager for Joseph Holt and who started her own career in the pub industry as a teenager. By the age of 19 she was running her own pub in Chester and went on to become one of the UK’s youngest landladies .

She said: “The Joseph Holt philosophy has always been to encourage ambition within the company. We want people to view hospitality as a fulfilling career not just a stop gap or place to work until something better comes along.

“That’s why we decided to formalise this philosophy by developing a training course that could be completed alongside existing roles within Joseph Holt.”

Graduates of the Joseph Holt scheme

The course includes leadership and employee relations as well as mastering tasks such as effective communication skills, recruitment and retention. But there’s also grass roots work – such as completing time in the kitchens, organising rotas and ensuring effective running of our food business

Staff shortages remain an issue for many areas of hospitality with vacancies remaining 30,000 below pre-pandemic levels. However, Joseph Holt has managed to weather^[7] this, in part, because many people stay with the business thanks to the option for career progression.

Richard Kershaw, CEO of Joseph Holt, and the fifth generation of the Holt family to run the business, says he believes entry level jobs such as serving behind a bar should be regarded as only the start of the journey for those with ambition.

He said: “Working in, say, a pub after graduating or leaving school is a way of accruing some valuable skills such as learning how to be part of a team, communication and taking responsibility. We really want to nurture talent and ambition and our progression plan really encourages this.”

Kyle Vynne added: “I’m encouraging those who work for me or with whom I’ve worked before to do the progression course. There are so many opportunities for a great career – if you want them.”

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