Bacardi Offers Young, Unemployed Adults in Paris the Opportunity to Launch a Career in the Bartending World

The Shake Your Future initiative is giving young adults a fresh start in life and at the same time helping to meet the hospitality industry’s high demand for trained bartenders

HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Family-owned spirits company, Bacardi is relaunching Shake Your Future in Paris to give young adults in the capital the life-changing opportunity to train as a professional bartender and at the same time help the city’s bars and restaurants find the trained staff they urgently need.

Starting this week, 14 young adults will begin the 10-week program which Bacardi runs in collaboration with the European Bartender School. The students are trained in the art of bartending and cocktail-making and gain valuable work experience with partners of Bacardi – which this year include The Hoxton and Groupe Bertrand. Graduates receive an internationally recognized diploma and access to permanent employment opportunities within the industry, empowering them to transform their lives and build a brighter future.

This is the third time the initiative has taken place in Paris and the first time since the global pandemic forced the hospitality industry to close its doors. The lockdown may be long over, but its impact is still being felt today with bars and restaurants suffering from severe shortages of trained staff.

"Through Shake Your Future, Bacardi is proactively doing its bit to help our friends in the hospitality community by bringing new talent into the industry and promoting hospitality as an exciting and rewarding career path," said Camille Durand, HR Director for Bacardi in France, Italy & Greece.

The students who begin the program in Paris next week are following in the footsteps of Shake Your Future graduates from the two previous editions who are now working in bars and restaurants across the capital and further afield.

Tim Abenhaim, Restaurant & Bars Manager at The Hoxton Paris, said: "We are proud to be supporting Shake Your Future by offering at least one of this year’s students a four-week internship in one of our bars as part of their diploma program. It’s a win-win. For the student, there is no better way to gain valuable experience than behind one of our busy bars at The Hoxton, where we pride ourselves on the quality of our drinks and the quality of service for every guest. And like so many other bars and restaurants around the world, we are eager to find new talent who have the skills and the passion to commit to an amazing career in hospitality."

As in previous years, Bacardi has partnered with the French unemployment office, Pôle Emploi, to identify the best candidates for the Shake Your Future program.

Shake Your Future was born in Paris in 2018, when Bacardi launched the initiative to help address the youth unemployment crisis on the doorstep of its former office in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Ouen (the office has since relocated to Saint-Denis). In 2019, in recognition of the program’s success, Bacardi was presented with the TOP 10 des recruteurs de la diversité award backed by the Ministère de l’économie et des finances.

Since its launch four years ago, Shake Your Future has been repeated in countries across Europe, most recently in South Africa and India, and has helped find employment for hundreds of Shake Your Future graduates who are now enjoying a new life behind the bar.

Bacardi has set an objective of introducing 10,000 new bartenders into the hospitality industry globally by 2030.

Shake Your Future, is part of the broader Good Spirited ESG program of Bacardi. The program is just one of the many ways in which Bacardi supports local communities. For more information about Shake Your Future, please visit: https://www.bacardilimited.com/corporate-responsibility/shakeyourfuture/fr/

About Bacardi

Bacardi Limited, the world's largest privately held spirits company, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. Bacardi Limited's brand portfolio includes over 200 brands and labels, including BACARDÍ® rum, GREY GOOSE® vodka, PATRÓN® tequila, DEWAR'S® Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, MARTINI® vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES® 100% blue agave tequila and other leading and emerging brands including WILLIAM LAWSON'S® Scotch whisky, ST-GERMAIN® elderflower liqueur and ERISTOFF® vodka. Founded more than 160 years ago in Santiago de Cuba, Bacardi Limited was born as a family business and currently employs more than 8,000 employees, operates production facilities in 10 different countries and sells its brands in more than 170 countries.

Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. Visit www.bacardilimited.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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