Fixing WA’s Hospitality Skill Shortage
Currently, all WA businesses suffer from an extreme skill shortage across various industries. The Hospitality industry has been hit the hardest. Statewide we currently have 15,000 vacancies, with this number only growing as staff must isolate due to COVID-19. As a result, many restaurants are operating half-staff, and some businesses even have to shut down due to being understaffed.
This is having a knock-on effect on all the staff still working within the industry as mounting pressure to work extra shifts to cover shortages leaves many staff overwhelmed and looking for ways out of the hospitality industry.
However, for people looking to enter the hospitality industry, this is an excellent opportunity to start their career. Many businesses are increasing wages to get more staff into work, with wages soaring above the 100k mark. However, even this is having limited success in WA due to record low unemployment rates and COVID-19 souring many workers in the hospitality industry.
This has led businesses to focus on upskilling young workers to fill these vacant positions. As a result, across many hospitality avenues, from Cafes to Bars to Restaurants, young people fill a large percentage of the new employees with businesses willing to invest in training and education to get these workers ready for employment directly out of school.
The hospitality industry is also excellent for people who need flexible hours for other things such as studying. Working part-time at a bar or café is perfect for any young people looking to go to university or do any other type of education.
The government has also responded to this shortage of workers by pumping millions of dollars into funding courses designed to get young people into hospitality. The Hospitality Skillset is an excellent qualification that provides all the units needed to work within the hospitality industry, including responsible service of alcohol and serving espresso coffee. The two units needed to work in bars and cafes within Australia. Training is not limited to this skill set. However, workplace traineeships that follow this skill set have also become extremely popular and can often lead to future promotions and management positions.
For more information on the hospitality offerings at Skills Strategies International see: Hospitality
