Making Hospitality Careers An Attractive Option!

For years the hospitality industry has had an overwhelming image problem of its own making. For some reason, rather than reward professionalism we have allowed the media and fringe elements to lionise poor behaviour. Most people “know” of the long anti-social hours, poor renumeration, exploitative management, misogynistic, sexist behaviour, of an industry plagued with addiction, mental health problems and poor behaviour, where only the tough survive. When you combine this with the shakeout of the past 3 years of pandemic that saw good people leave hospitality in droves, the industry is now crying out for new workers, but jobs and careers in hospitality seem to have all the appeal of a terminal disease.

At the heart of this issue is talent attraction, faced with abundant choices why would anyone want to sign up for a workplace and industry that seemingly doesn’t value its most important assets its employees. Of course, those of us that have been around the industry for a long time know that not all operators can be tarred with the same brush, and that hospitality can be and is a highly rewarding career on so many levels, and so the challenge is to change these perceptions.

This is something we have been working on with local industry at Regional Development Australia, Barossa, Gawler Light & Adelaide Plains. For a couple of years, we have been trying to lift the veil to allow people to see hospitality from the inside in a brief immersive training program led by industry. This is not a certified multi week course conducted in sterile training rooms, rather it is a fast paced, engaging and fun one week immersion. Training is conducted in real hospitality venues by owners and team leaders, where they break the mould of structured learning and with it shine a light on the attractive elements of hospitality, the teamwork, camaraderie, and the inevitable growth in skills, confidence, and ability to communicate.

Of course, certified training has its place, after all the entire hospitality system and pay structure is built around certified training, yet currently many employers complain that current skills-based training doesn’t produce people that are job ready and aren’t able to perform tasks required of them at their qualification level. An all-too-common refrain I hear is that while new employees arrive with cert 2, 3 or even 4, the employers must train them all over again! Of course, this is no reflection on the trainers rather it reflects of on bureaucratic system that sees training as distinct from, rather than embedded in the workplace.

Institutional training whether VET in schools, TAFE sector or private RTO can only ever cover the broad requirements as laid down by the AQF, it doesn’t allow for the innovative and contemporary systems implemented by individual enterprises, further the rigid guidelines that blindly separate FOH & BOH qualifications when modern industry has long moved to a multi skilled, flexible team where employees can pivot between roles. Too often students complete certified training that is devoid of genuine customer contact and industry immersion, no wonder the drop out rate is so high when people finally finish training, and the rubber hits the road.

In complete contrast it is pleasing that the results from our five day intensive industry immersion suggest that people, regardless of age and demographic, when given the opportunity to see and experience multiple facets of hospitality, when they are treated to genuine hospitality themselves, even dining as customers to understand what it should be like to be served in a fine restaurant, and that get the opportunity to prepare food that is consumed by others or to quickly master the fundamentals of coffee making without the need for theoretical or practical assessment, leads to almost all participants joining the industry and looking forward to further skills development.

Once they are part of our world, the opportunity to do the heavy lifting, secure qualifications and promote up skilling becomes something both employee and industry can invest in. This is where certified training has its benefit, recognising and rewarding genuine skills development rather than theoretical ones and offering a lifelong career path. We must start valuing and rewarding excellence rather than demanding it and demeaning those that lack the skills to hit the target, we need to start investing across the board for life not giving some cursory training and expect people to work for the remainder of their carer without further skills updates.

In short, we need to start telling genuine positive stories and showing how rewarding our industry can be and by giving people the chance to taste and try before they buy, this simple initiative led by RDA & Industry working together is proving to have very beneficial outcomes for our local Industry, community, and economy. Watch this space for more!

Sincere thanks from Regional Development Australia Barossa Gawler Light Adelaide Plains to our following partners:

Novotel Barossa Valley Resort Ember Pizza Barossa Farmers Market The Louise Barossa Valley and Appellation Restaurant Hentley Farm Barossa Australia Barossa Regional University Campus FINO SEPPELTSFIELD Seppeltsfield Barossa Weintal Resort