AHA teams up with the AAHS to address national skill shortages
The Association of Australian Hotel Schools (AAHS) and the Australian Hotel Association (AHA) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the employment of graduates from select tertiary education providers to AHA members. This will give AHA members direct access to graduates from elite hotel management education providers across the country.
The AAHS is made up of eight private hotel schools1 located in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. These colleges are all respected education leaders in their specialist fields and produce graduates with between six months and two years practical on the job training.
The latest Clarius Skill Indicator2 shows a combined shortage of nearly 5,000 skilled managers in hospitality, retail, advertising and sales sectors. The new partnership between AAHS and the AHA will help to address this shortage by streamlining the graduate employment process and providing direct access to skilled workers. William Blue College of Hospitality Management, an industry leader in specialist areas such as hospitality, tourism and event management and commercial cookery, is just one of the colleges that will be a key lifeline to prestigious AHA members in Sydney who are suffering from a scarcity of highly skilled managers.
Des Crow, National AHA CEO says “The agreement with the Hotel Schools is a measure to address the chronic staff shortages facing the hotel sector.” President of the AAHS Jenny Jenkins agrees commenting; “This agreement will open new doors in the hotel industry for the benefit of hotels, the young graduates and AAHS members.”
AAHS trained students are particularly valuable to the hotel industry, for example – by the time students graduate from William Blue College of Hospitality Management they have learned technical skills from industry based teaching staff, gained hands on experience through a targeted career management program and participated in large scale events such as Masterchef Live, Fashion Week and Taste of Sydney, clocking up between 400-800 hours of industry placement.
The flexibility offered by this agreement allows hotels to contact hotel schools in their state and across Australia. The creation of this straightforward pathway between hotel and higher education provider will prove invaluable in addressing the skill shortages and the unequal allocation of labour resources nationally.
1 Schools include: Australian School of Tourism and Hotel Management (WA), Kenvale College – Hospitality and Event Management (NSW), Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School (NSW), Le Cordon Bleu (NSW and SA), The Hotel School Sydney (NSW), William Blue College of Hospitality Management (NSW), the International College of Hotel Management (SA) and the International College of Management (NSW).
2 The Clarius Skill Indicator, March 2013, drew on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to measure oversupply and shortfalls for 10 major occupation categories. Source: www.clarius.com.au
Source: eTravel Blackboard, 5 June 2013
