Workforce Development Report
STEPHEN LONG Industry Skills and Workforce Development Manager
Work Experience.... Are you doing it right ?it right?
What does this actually mean? 1. The student understands what is expected of them 2. The venue understands its role 3. The experience needs to include busy times – You can’t learn about pressure unless you experience it 4. No sweeping, washing or peeling up front 5. The student needs to shadow someone and learn what happens, and how, and about pressure 6. When the student is ready start include them in transactions on their own and gradually include them into busier times – they have to learn about pressure but in a reasonable way 7. Encourage them, let them understand everyone makes mistakes – it’s about how you recover 8. Finish with a review – talk to them about what they experienced and where they need to focus Engage with TasTAFE and schools if they approach you about work experience, make sure you understand what they want to achieve and that you clearly indicate what you have to offer. This person you give an opportunity to could also be a great long term employee for your venue - value and encourage that opportunity.
At the time of reading this article many, but not all venues, will be in the off-season resting and planning for the season ahead. Some venues will have closed, new ones will have opened and some will just have changed hands and maybe names. An indicator of venue numbers is the number of licensed premises and this continues to grow. From 2015 to 2018 there are 300 venues who no longer have licenses but 464 new ones – a gain of 164 venues, about 11%. The obvious issue becomes staff numbers for the continuing and new venues – how do you source them, or do you just work harder? Given that most of the recruitment done these days is through word of mouth or networks, and that many industries are seeking the same employees it is difficult to get new, suitable staff when you want them. We need to start trusting the VET and TAFE sectors to provide a viable product to work in our venues. Drysdale are now moving in the right direction. They are now run by a Sub Committee of the TasTAFE Board that has business people included – 2 from Hospitality, 2 from Tourism, so Industry now gets a major say in the way they work. The new Drysdale Manager is helping staff understand the new environment and things are starting to change. We are starting to engage better with VET about industry needs. How does this help venues? – A start would be to make sure that where possible, work experience is done in your venue and that it is worthwhile for the venue and the work experience student.
June 2018 www.tha.asn.au
13
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online