Tasmania’s chef shortage
For a place that’s supposed to have the best food offerings in Australia, Tasmania has a crisis on its hands.
It’s a skills shortage. It simply doesn’t have enough chefs.
According to the latest figures, there is an estimated 300 positions that are vacant. That’s double last year’s figure.
For it’s part, the Tasmanian Hospitality Association has delivered a five-year plan to the State Government to address the acute skill shortages in the industry.
The aim is to bridge the gap between the state’s chronically high unemployment levels and the severe skills and labour shortage in one of Tasmania’s fastest growing sectors.
THA general manager Steve Old said it’s an area that has be addressed.
“Hospitality is the third- largest employing industry and there are jobs and careers for people that want them,” Mr Old told the Hobart Mercury.
“There are massive skill shortages in all areas, especially regional.”
It comes at a time when figures show students starting tourism, travel and hospitality training contracts dropped 13 per cent during 2013-15. Worse still, the number who actually completed the training declined 60 per cent.
The THA blueprint will see 20 hospitality ambassadors put into schools to promote careers in the industry, a greater focus on school-based apprenticeships, developing clearer pathways for hospitality careers and giving employers incentives to take on staff.
A solution has to be found because a number of venues are now desperate to attract staff.
These include large operations like the RACT/RACV Hotel in Hobart as well as the popular Salamanca watering holes Grape, Brickworks and Customs House.
Things have got to a point now where venues are looking for visas and international workers, or they’re “poaching” skilled workers from other venues to fill short-term gaps.
THA president Paul Jubb, for example, has spent $6000 sponsoring apprentice chef Henry Lau from Malaysia, who completed his training at Drysdale and is working at Customs House on a 457 Visa. He also employs another visa worker as his restaurant manager at Barilla.
“There’s simply not enough out there,” Mr Jubb told The Mercury.
by Leon Gettler, 24th August 2016
