There's no secret about the restaurant industry here in Oz being challenging. It's highly competitive, with seemingly a new venue popping up just about every other day. In fact, the full-service restaurant business is worth around $12 billion, according to IBIS World stats, and during the last Australian Bureau of Statistics census, there were over 13,000 individual establishments across the country.

Even with such size, though, managers are facing challenges. People are turning to fast, inexpensive food more frequently than ever before, states Euromonitor, and some of the most recent food trends have called for increasingly varied food to match that of TV chefs, or to be shareable as photos on Twitter and Instagram.

So in our brave new world, could helping your staff gain new skills be an answer to staying on top?

A more and more diverse food skillset may be necessary for future restaurant employees. A more and more diverse food skill set may be necessary for future restaurant employees.

Smart and Skilled for smart, skilled workers

Smart and Skilled* can help employers in New South Wales looking to give their new or existing staff an extra knowledge boost, and perhaps even that creative inspiration needed to upgrade your restaurant offerings.

This service features an extensive list of courses for skill improvement, including many in the hospitality sector. Better still, you can send your staff for further education at a institute such as ours, the Australian College of Higher Studies. We can offer a highly personalised Traineeship for new staff or Commercial Cookery Apprenticeship for existing employees, as well as continued support for throughout their development.

Let's look at a specific example.

Though your chefs may already be well-versed in what they currently prepare for your menu, there's always room for improvement.

Commercial cookery: Training for your existing chefs?

Though your chefs may already be well-versed in what your current menu requires, there's always room for improvement if they want to better themselves.

We recommend considering sending some of your existing cooks on a customised Certificate III in Commercial Cookery apprenticeship through Smart and Skilled. There are many different modules to this program, which means nobody has to study what they already know. For instance, your employee may be familiar with basic food handling and, say, desserts, but is less confident with poultry, seafood or even administrative and IT tasks. We can work with you to cater this hospitality program to your exact needs.

This course, among many of our others, can be completed either in-person with a tutor or online. If you want assistance training new staff members, consider instead our Traineeship programs, such as the Certificate II in Hospitality.

Contact us today to find out more about how AUSCHS can help upskill your business.

*This funding is subsidised by the NSW government