Recently I was reading a report from the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council. The report relates to future labour shortfall forecasts over the next 15 years with the food and beverage sector being hit the hardest.
Since my first arrival to Canada in 1999 it has become evident that young people do not see hospitality as a future career. We all know that hospitality involves long hours and a high level of tolerance.
But as an industry it does offer unlimited career growth that allows people to travel whilst gaining more experience not to mention the chance of meeting interesting people.
I am not sure where we or how we are going to attract new people to our industry, in the mid 1990’s the United Kingdom experienced the same problem. A group of industry professionals formed The Academy of Food and Wine Service which became dedicated to raising the profile of the industry in an attempt to attract more school leavers to enter the industry.
Industry peers, leading professionals from World renowned Chefs, Sommeliers, and Hoteliers all got involved as well suppliers and hotel chains. The Academy offers membership at different levels allowing access to training tools, webinar sessions, as well as organising annual competitions for Chefs, Servers and Sommeliers. It has been very successful in raising the profile of the industry and attracting a new generation of hospitality professionals as well as raising standards.
I look at the hospitality industry here personally I think we are two steps behind Europe, in order to attract the youth of tomorrow into our industry there is a lot to be done in order to achieve this but just maybe a Provincial Academy maybe a step in the right direction.
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