It is the first pub company to sign up to the initiative, with the aim of improving the skills and education of its 21,000 members of staff in its pubs and head office. The skills pledge is a voluntary, public commitment (made by an organisation) to invest in its workforce's skills. To date, companies including Sainsbury's, McDonald's, Whitbread and Tesco have signed the pledge on behalf of their staff. Wetherspoon's director of personnel and legal, Su Cacioppo, said: "We invest £1.5 million annually in staff training, which clearly highlights the importance we place on it. By signing up to the skills pledge, we will be able to offer our staff even greater opportunities to gain skills and qualifications, while working. "We are demonstrating support for our employees who wish to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills (equivalent to Maths and English GCSE at grades A - C) by investing in an online e-learning system for them to use, with the added benefit of a personal tutor on hand to support them during their learning plan." It will not be mandatory for Wetherspoon staff to undertake this learning; however, they will be encouraged to do so as part of their career progression with the company. In addition, Wetherspoon is launching its own Apprenticeship in Food & Drink Service - for all bar and kitchen staff across its estate. The training will take place in the pubs by staff completing their current training programme. Wetherspoon has worked with awarding body Edexcel to accredit their own training scheme as it was important to offer a 'business as usual' model to the individual pubs. The qualification will also be certified by Edexcel (the UK's largest awarding body offering academic and vocational qualifications and testing to schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning in the UK and overseas). The Wetherspoon apprenticeship will last for six months, with the qualification being the equivalent of five GCSEs (at grades A-C).