College Faculty Birmingham has acquired the previous The Dice Lodge and Marco Pierre White restaurant in Birmingham metropolis centre, the primary stage of a hospitality funding programme of greater than £15 million that the college stated will create greater than 150 jobs.
The Birmingham Faculty of Meals, a part of the college, will take over the 2 venues, which occupy the twenty third, twenty fourth and twenty fifth flooring of The Dice, and reopen them as a 52-bedroom resort and restaurant. Redevelopment and improve works will happen over the following three to 4 months, the college stated, with opening dates and recruitment particulars printed because the venues progress in the direction of completion. The resort and the restaurant, which opened in 2011, ceased buying and selling in June.
Alongside the resort, College Faculty Birmingham will open a neighbourhood restaurant in Harborne and a café, restaurant and bar at its Summer season Row campus within the metropolis centre. The present Restaurant at Birmingham Faculty of Meals will endure a full refurbishment beneath the identical programme.
The college stated the venues will function as industrial companies whereas offering college students on its resort, hospitality, culinary arts, enterprise and occasions administration programs with paid employment, apprenticeships and placements. Recruitment is beneath approach for hospitality professionals to guide every venue, with what the college described as a specific deal with bringing again its personal alumni.
Professor Michael Harkin, vice-chancellor and principal at College Faculty Birmingham, stated: “This acquisition marks the start of an thrilling new chapter for College Faculty Birmingham and demonstrates our continued dedication to investing in distinctive studying environments for our college students. Over the previous 5 years, we now have invested greater than £300 million throughout our campuses, Birmingham metropolis centre and the encompassing communities, and this newest programme represents one other vital step ahead.”
He added: “On the identical time, we’re strengthening Birmingham’s hospitality sector when it’s going through vital challenges by creating new jobs, attracting proficient professionals and supporting town’s repute as a number one vacation spot for hospitality, tourism and culinary excellence.”
The funding comes as the broader sector sheds workers. Evaluation of official employment knowledge by UKHospitality discovered that just about 89,000 hospitality jobs have been misplaced because the autumn Funds, 53 per cent of the 164,641 jobs misplaced throughout the UK economic system over the identical interval. The commerce physique stated the speed of job losses in hospitality was seven occasions that of the broader economic system as a proportion of the workforce. Kate Nicholls, its chair, has known as on the federal government to decrease enterprise charges, change employer Nationwide Insurance coverage contributions and reduce VAT.
David Cumberlidge, industrial director at College Faculty Birmingham, stated: “These acquisitions create an unimaginable alternative for our college students to study and work alongside skilled hospitality professionals in a variety of thrilling industrial settings. College Faculty Birmingham has an excellent heritage, the Faculty of Meals, a part of our Enterprise College, has skilled many Michelin-starred cooks in addition to numerous hospitality leaders.”
The acquisition follows the opening of a culinary college in Chelmsley Wooden, which presents free coaching for adults and younger folks coming into hospitality or returning to work. The federal government has individually confirmed an apprenticeship bursary of as much as £4,500 a yr for Common Credit score households.
College Faculty Birmingham teaches greater than 10,000 college students. The Restaurant at Birmingham Faculty of Meals has served diners because the Nineteen Sixties.
The EY 2026 UK Attractiveness Survey ranked Birmingham because the second most sought-after UK metropolis outdoors London amongst firms planning to speculate, with the Midlands creating 5,970 international direct funding jobs in 2025.
Jamie Younger
Jamie Younger is Senior Reporter at Enterprise Issues, masking SME finance, employment legislation and Westminster coverage since 2016. He has reported on each Funds and Autumn Assertion since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid period’ and the bounce-back mortgage scheme from launch by way of the fraud investigations, and broke the journal’s protection of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Enterprise Issues straight from finishing his BA in Administration from Exeter College and is NCTJ-qualified. Attain him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk
