Mudgee will be the first location in NSW to provide a new hospitality training program aimed at increasing skills within the industry and attracting new employees.
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The TAFE NSW Mudgee Hospitality Professional Program is a collaboration with Destination Country & Outback NSW, Mid-Western Regional Council and local industry.
Minister responsible for TAFE NSW as well as Tourism and Major Events, Adam Marshall, said, "we have identified the need for more specialised hospitality training, and there is nowhere more appropriate to launch this exciting program, than in a food, wine and tourism mecca like Mudgee”.
"When I first came here to this campus, well over 12 months ago, the message I heard loud and clear was that we really have a huge skills shortage here in Mudgee in the hospitality area," he said.
"Not just in commercial cookery, back of house, but particularly front of house and some of those high level skills. And tourists that come to Mudgee - and we have increasing numbers of those coming here, every weekend, year on year - they have high expectations about the sort customer service and the experience that they're going to have.
"It's wonderful that this program combines neatly my two responsibilities in the state government of tourism and TAFE, because were able to bring the skills and experience of TAFE to come up with a local solution to help address the skills shortage and to give lots of young people the opportunity to get skilled up and pursue the career of their dreams."
He added that if the program is successful locally it will be rolled out in other areas.
"This will demonstrate that Mudgee is leading the way and its my hope that if we give it 12 months and it's successful that we can take the learnings from here and roll it out to other areas of the state, which have similar issues to Mudgee," he said.
Nationals candidate for Dubbo Dugald Saunders said “lifting the hospitality service standards in a region like ours, which has a growing demand for skilled workers, will provide a fantastic boost to our local tourism industry”.
"This one is such a good example of how you can tap into local knowledge and local need as well, we know from speaking to local business owners that they need the best qualified people to deliver for locals and tourists," he said.
"This is a bespoke program, it's tailored by people locally for people locally and will work in this region therefore providing real jobs for people in the region."