Industry Skills and Workforce Development STEPHEN LONG Industry Skills and Workforce Development Manager
Building new employment sources – Hospitality Awareness
One of the major outcomes for the THA Workforce Plan is the re-engagement of the industry with employment services – these employment services have a huge client list and should be a major source of employees for the hospitality industry. There is an untapped and unused workforce with employment agencies that must be made available, and attractive to venues for employment – the industry needs to be demystified, and the industry needs to accept a new employment dynamic using employment type agencies. THA is engaging with employment providers (JobActive, Not for Profits, Disability, Migrant Education, PaTH providers etc), and with the Tasmanian Department of State Growth and the Commonwealth Department of Employment to provide more options in employment. There is a distinct lack of training undertaken in the industry due to regionalism, casualisation and a training regime focused on and committed to accredited training. This program provides a simple step up for non-participants in training that will provide a pathway to accredited training by introducing a positive environment and outcome for workers that promotes an awareness of training opportunities. The program works this way: • THA has, through the Minister for State Growth, The Hon. Matthew Groom, obtained funding for this project • THA has approached (and eyeballed) 50 different agencies across Tasmania – 5,000 vehicle kilometres + wear and tear on footwear. • THA has developed a framework for the sessions, agencies have agreed to provide clients, TasTAFE have provided access to Drysdale in Launceston and Hobart and members have agreed to take participants on venue tours to better educate them about how a venue works. Many thanks to the Kermandie Hotel, RACT/ RACV Hotel, Hadleys Hotel and The Old Woolstore in Hobart, Penny Royal in Launceston, Quality Gateway in Devonport, Comfort Hotel in Burnie, Tall Timbers at Smithton, Bayview Inn at St Helens and Comfort Inn the Pier at George Town. – getting to regions is a very important principle for the THA. • TasTAFE have sourced presenters for the program and after some spirited sessions, understood and embraced the principles and delivery requirements – it’s not a teaching session, it’s information delivery and storytelling to better inform clients of the opportunities. • After sessions are complete, participants indicate their desire to be involved in further training
• Training will provide a better placed cohort of employees – trained enough to be of use on day 1 for employers but not qualified. • These trained employee opportunities will be advertised to our membership in late September/ early October for employment. There are a few things that have enabled THA to provide the sessions in a way that engages the clients that come from the employment agencies, and these are from Job Actives, Disability Employment, PaTH program (C’wlth government), Migrant Education, Not for Profits and anyone else we can find. The best enabler we have found is in digital presentation: • Videos of people in the industry • Training videos – see Typsy info later. • Story telling – our presenters have worked in the industry – they have a story to tell, participants have stories to tell, other staff at TasTAFE have contributed their stories and people at venues have done the same. Great stories of what it means to work in Hospitality – thank you to all who have contributed. We push on with the program and we are looking now at pushing it out to schools – the next step, and one that is logical and fits well with our Workforce Plan.
BE READY IN OCTOBER – WE WILL BE MARKETING EMPLOYEES TO YOU.
Introducing
For the THA, Typsy is the vehicle that gets people involved in training – it is our pathway to “participation”. A key plank for our Great Customer Experience program is contact, diagnostic, presentation and ultimately training at your venue, when you want it, not interfering in service and available when you need it. Typsy allows us to meet those requirements. It’s not accredited training but it will give your people some of the skills they need to “just do the job you want them to do”. It also provides an experience that demonstrates to your staff that training is a good thing, and we hope that leads to staff embarking
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enquiries@tha.asn.au 03 6220 7300
Hospitality Review
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