Celebrating 30 years of HIT Scotland: Supporting Scottish hospitality 

2024 marks an incredible 30 years of HIT Scotland – as Scotland’s hospitality industry charity, HIT provides funded opportunities for those working in the sector to grow and develop through their scholarship programme. 

The Represent team have been proud to support HIT Scotland over the last five years to spread the word about the amazing work they do. To celebrate this special milestone, we wanted to shout out our lovely client and take a look back at the successes we’ve had with them over the last few years! 

What do HIT Scotland do? 

HIT Scotland are truly unique in their mission of empowering inspirational development within the Scottish hospitality sector. Established by industry leaders in 1994 and headed up by David Cochrane MBE, the charity has gone from strength to strength over the years – and in that time has awarded 7,000 scholarships and supported more than 15,000 students with bursaries! 

HIT offers tailored learning experiences through its annual scholarship programme, which is designed to help hospitality employees broaden their skills and experience. 

Launching the Andrew Fairlie Scholarship 

Back in 2019, HIT Scotland got in touch with Represent for help launching their newest scholarship – the Andrew Fairlie Scholarship. 

Spearheaded by HIT Scotland and supported by the First Minister, Scottish Government and Gleneagles, the Andrew Fairlie Scholarship was launched in February 2019 in recognition of Andrew’s significant and lasting contribution to the hospitality industry. 

The scholarship seeks to provide two chefs working in Scotland with the same level of inspiration and development that Andrew himself experienced as the first ever Roux Scholar when starting out in his career. 

Represent was tasked with launching the scholarship and raising awareness amongst aspiring chefs working across Scotland. We have supported HIT Scotland with the scholarship every year since (apart from 2020 which was cancelled due to the pandemic)! 

We have generated some brilliant results – 184 pieces of media coverage, (including the front page of The Scotsman!), opinion pieces in The Herald and The Caterer, and 17 applications for the scholarship. 

You can check out the full case study on supporting this inspiring scholarship here. 

Supporting Scottish hospitality  

Since then, we have forged a partnership with HIT Scotland, supporting the organisation with other activities throughout the year.  

This includes the annual HIT Talent Conference, where hundreds of scholarships are awarded to people working in the Scottish hospitality and tourism sector. This year, they awarded their 7000th scholarship! 

We are passionate about our work with HIT Scotland, and take great joy in supporting the valuable work that they do. They play a huge role in upskilling people at all stages of their careers, giving the industry at wide a boost while doing so!  

Hospitality and the food & drink sectors are some of our specialities here at Represent. Check out this page to find out more about how we can help those within these sectors amplify their voice and stand out from the crowd.  

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