OUR OBJECTIVES ARE:
- Retain skilled professionals within our industry
- Increase apprenticeships throughout the industry in both Kitchen and Front of House
- Make a positive contribution to training our future Chefs and Food & Beverage staff.
ABOUT THE SCHEME:
Modern apprenticeships have not been gaining traction / acceptance in the owner-operator restaurants because of the perception of the amount of work involved, the difficulties of understanding the modern apprenticeship concept and the reluctance of many owner-operators to commit to an employment relationship with someone who needs basic training and mentoring.
In broad terms, the apprentice will be employed by the Restaurant Association Education Trust, and the Restaurateur will undertake to provide work, and in-house training. The cost to the Restaurateur will be the apprentice’s hourly rate marked up to cover annual leave, sick-pay, ACC levies, time spent on off-job training and the cost of administration. The mark-up will be around 35% of the actual paid rate. The Restaurateur will pay the marked-up rate for only the hours spent actually working, and for first week ACC cost – holidays, time spent on block courses or day-release, and the ACC levy, will be paid by the Restaurant Association.
In evaluating this, respondents should be aware that annual and statutory holidays, ACC levies and sick-pay provisions alone, which all employers are required by law to pay, amount to just over 18.5% of the paid rate.
The cost of off-job training, which is heavily subsidised by the HSI, will be paid by the apprentice directly to HSI.
The Apprentice Coordinator, Peter Le Grice, will be responsible for the recruitment of apprentices, matching apprentices with restaurateurs, administration, mentoring and reviewing the apprentices’ progress.
THE BENEFITS OF OUR SCHEME ARE:
For the Restaurateur:
- The restaurateur is relieved of most of the organisational and administration burden associated with a modern apprenticeship.
- The restaurateur has some diminished responsibility to see the whole 3 year programme out.
- The restaurateur only pays the agreed hourly rate for time that the apprentice is actually working for him / her.
- The Coordinator will be available to mentor and assist with any challenges that arise during the apprenticeship, including any disciplinary matters.
For the Modern Apprentice:
- He or she has the security of knowing that if things do not, for whatever reason, work out at the first work-place, the employment relationship is with the industry body and another placement will be found.
- It will also allow some flexibility for apprentices to gain wider experience than some establishments can offer.
- The Coordinator will be available to mentor and assist with any challenges that arise during the apprenticeship, including ensuring that training and verification are kept on track.
General
There are a number of working examples of this concept. The largest similar scheme is run by ATNZ (Apprentice Training New Zealand) which is a subsidiary of Competenz, the engineering ITO, which has been running successfully for 6 years and has over700 modern apprentices currently in training with 600 companies. Other schemes exist in the electrical and plumbing industries, which, like the Restaurant industry, consist mainly of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The Hospitality Industry has a critical need to meet the demands of our growing sector, and this is a self-help initiative of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand Inc.
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