National winners take home top honours at Awards for Excellence
More than 400 industry leaders flocked to the Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence 2013 at Randwick to help celebrate the country’s best restaurateurs, cafe operators and caterers on the evening of Monday 28 October.
Customs House in Brisbane took out the Caterer of the Year category and Jacques Reymond Restaurant in Prahran won the Restaurant of the Year.
Extra award winners include; Aboriginal Workforce Development Project, which was honoured with the George Mure Memorial Professional Development Award; and Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, which won the Green Table Awards for Excellence in Environmental Sustainability.
The Awards for Excellence remains the most dependable and authoritative guide to Australia’s best restaurants and caterers, which has set the National benchmark for objectively recognising and promoting best practice.
Restaurant & Catering Australia CEO John Hart says there will be new categories introduced next year, which focus on education, training and being up to speed with digital technology.
“The businesses that get involved in the Skills Pathways project and take note of the Digital Business Kit, which includes five modules to be released by June 2014, will have a head start,” said Mr Hart.
The $7 million Skills Pathways project has been co-funded by the Australian Government’s Accelerated Australian Apprenticeships initiative to help improve retention rates, increase the quality of apprentices to meet industry needs and to up skill chefs and supervisors.
Research by the National Centre for Vocational Educational Research from 2005 – 2009 shows that only 39.2 percent of Australian apprentices in the food industry gain their qualification.
R&CA CEO John Hart says that this is a major concern for the restaurant and catering industry.
“The Skills Pathways project is a 360 degree approach to improve retention rates with four new competency based progression pathways, which are available to prospective apprentices, apprentices, chefs and supervisors,” Mr Hart said.
R&CA is working closely with eight training registered organisations to provide world class training until June 30, 2015.
There are 1,250 positions available in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT and WA across the four Skills Pathways including:
- 500 Certificate lll in Commercial Cookery apprenticeships and;
Certificate lll in Hospitality (front-of-house) vacancies; - 325 Certificate IV in Commercial Cookery positions;
- 400 formal training in supervision pathways.
The program is supported by the Discover Hospitality website, which is the first online recruitment platform where users can store their electronic CV and supporting information in a free, convenient and secure ‘Skills Passport’.
Employers can track an employee’s training and career achievements on the website, which helps connect them with apprentices and chefs.
Those who attended the awards were also given a sneak peek of the first module of the Digital Business Kit, which shows how working in an office is a thing of the past.
The DVD shows how to strike the perfect balance of teleworking and how restaurants and cafes can provide accessibility and mobility to customers.
The Digital Business Kit provides first hand industry specific information on how businesses can take advantage of the technologies available to enable efficiency and productivity.
The first video and supplementary materials will be released via the official R&CA website at www.restaurantcater.asn.au, as well as via telework.gov.au website.
To view the full list of category winners in the 2013 Savour AustraliaTM Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence, please visit the Restaurant & Catering website at www.restaurantcater.asn.au
Source: Restaurant & Catering, 29 October 2013
