Getting know-how on the job

BY JARED SMITH

Taranaki has a thriving hospitality industry, so why not get more young people in at the ground level?

The Hospitality Standards Institute has 22 students working as apprentices to become chefs or to gain a food and beverage qualification.

"It isn't a heck of a lot really, considering all the outlets," says Caroline Medway-Smith, HSI senior training adviser.

"Especially with all the visitors that we do have coming through for all the shows and so forth.

"I have employers ringing me every week, without fail, asking if I've got a chef, or if I know of someone who can come and work for them."

Rather than send promising young people who want to enter the industry to polytechnic or specialist courses in Hamilton, Auckland, or Wellington, they can stay here and learn within the Taranaki industry.

Business owners can then mould young staff to into the kind of workers they want in their kitchens, while giving back to the industry through passing on expertise.

"It's a way for an employer to have an employee for 2 1/2, three years, while they're gaining their qualification," Mrs Medway- Smith says.

"So if they took someone on as an apprentice, then at least they'd have someone that they could train up."

The current apprentices are all recent school leavers, many of whom heard about the hospitality course while in school.

"They've got to find an employer who's willing to take them on, and that's often the issue," she says.

In rural Taranaki, it is common for young people who work part-time at cafes and restaurants to leave town to attend courses when school finishes, without knowing they could do a course that keeps them in their current employment fulltime.

New Plymouth's Garlic Press owner Sohnke Danger says the trouble is all employers want good chefs, but don't want to put the hard work in to mould them.

He employs apprentices Jon Baker, 18, in his second year, and Chayce Hayward, 17, who is just starting out.

"For me, at the end of the day, I want to have one in every year," Mr Danger says.

Having done a three-year apprenticeship himself in Germany, he feels on-the-job will teach more than any polytechnic.

"It is really important to be producing good chefs. Hands-on learning is 100 times better than opening a book.

"They really convinced me that they want to be here.

"I gave them both a go and it's one of the best things I've ever done.

"The reward is to see them progress."

It is not easy. Both young men had to adjust to working sometimes upwards of 12-hour days, while Mr Danger must keep a constant eye out to advise in a frantic working environment.

Apprentices also go to five-day training course modules every six months, at either the Manukau Institute of Technology in Auckland, or the Wellington Institute of Technology.

"It's good to go to Auckland and get a different skill set from what we learn here," says Jon.

"We bring that back and we do some assessment dishes.

"I'm a practical person. Here I come to work every day - you can't learn this in a classroom."

Chayce admits it has been challenging and very tiring for a teenager, but says it is great to work beside the other chefs.

Mr Danger says he will adapt to the rigours of the profession, being "out of the dream world".

And after three years, both men will have a reference they can take anywhere on the globe.

Under the Hospitality Standards Institute local apprenticeship, the institute helps pay for training and the advisers keep the apprentices on track in the workplace.

There are two-day assessments with the providers.

The process continues till the apprentice has completed five modules for Level 2 and 3 standards.

It will cost them $1000 per year, which can be paid for over time by automatic payments.

In years two and three they can enter the Modern Apprentice of the Year competitions. The chef winner goes to Britain to work with some top chefs, while the food and beverage winner goes to a vineyard extravaganza in Australia.

There are intake rounds in February and July, depending on numbers, although one can start at any time of the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News