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During 2005, the Skills Formation Taskforce was formed as a committee of the Western Australian (WA) State Training Board (STB) to provide advice on the issues and impediments to growth in apprenticeships and traineeships. The Hospitality Industry Working Group (HIWG) was created to examine issues specifically relating to apprenticeships in the cooking trade and was provided with the following terms of reference: (1) to determine the appropriate nominal duration for apprenticeship training in the trade of cooking; (2) where a change in nominal duration is proposed, to determine the off-the-job training delivery pattern; (3) to consider flexible arrangements or alternative training pathways that lead to a trade qualification and recognise specialisation, and provide advice on any agreed new models; (4) to provide advice on the appropriateness of the current nomenclature for the trade of cooking, giving consideration to improving the appeal to young people; and (5) to provide a report outlining the outcomes. Following consultations across industry, it was evident that there was strong support from industry for the recommendations and there was an acceptance that those matters pertaining to industrial arrangements would need to be resolved in the immediate future to enable the proposed changes to occur. As well, to address a perceived deficiency (establishments not operating sufficiently long hours to employ a full time apprentice) in training pathways for the hospitality industry, it was proposed to pilot part-time chef apprenticeships. The report also found that the current vocational education and training (VET) system's responses to skilling chefs afford a number of options to people wishing to enter into a cooking career. Maintaining, if not increasing, the flexibility of these various pathways was seen of paramount importance to ensure that the industry could obtain access to a skilled workforce and that considerable effort should be made to ensure that the standard and quality of training provided to apprentices and potential entrants into the cooking area is of an extremely high standard.

The 10 Industry Working Groups' reports are indexed from TD/WA 87.04 to TD/WA 87.13. Show less