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Jingle_Jangle
Oliver Schick
I suspect your understanding is intuitively right given your experience; whenever an employer sounds off about EU workers, it usually comes across to me as 'the supply of workers from the EU is very convenient for me'.
I can't speak for all of Europe, but in Germany there's a three-tier school system. Those who leave school at 15, from the 'lowest' school tier, which is called "Hauptschule" or 'main school', will either start work without getting any subsequent qualifications, or go on to the second tier, "Realschule", do their equivalent of GCSEs, and start an apprenticeship (hard to get in some industries, easier in others), as will most of those who've been in the Realschule all along, although some will go on to the "Gymnasium", the 'highest' tier, and do the equivalent of A-levels, afterwards either studying or going on to an apprenticeship.
Very few young people from any type of school will have a 'part-time job', strictly speaking. Many will have summer jobs, but that's not the same. Those who have gone into jobs withoput qualifications will most probably work full-time. Those who do an apprenticeship will for the most part also do it full-time, it being a mixture of working in the company to which they are apprenticed and school work at the professional school.
By the age of 18 or 19, many young people will have completed their three-year apprenticeship and will be in full-time work, including in the hospitality industry. Their work experience will be as a result of their full-time apprenticeship, and they'll naturally be more skilled than people who have no recourse to such a system. Imperfect though it is, it's a lot better than parachuting people into jobs without that support.
Apprenticeships cost companies and the government money, so Ms British Hotel Owner will benefit from the German and perhaps other governments having spent money on young people that she doesn't have to invest any more, whether she pays them well or not.
I have no idea what the system is like in Poland, but I'm sure there are similar ways in which people acquire skills that British business owners can then use. /csb