Global Chef Shortage

Kiwi employers and restaurant owners are competing against each other in a bid to create the hottest incentivized packages yet, in order to attract the right Culinary staff with a winning combination – the right qualifications, the right visa and most importantly the right attitude.

Many Chef students become short sighted when they start their qualifications and the lure of a regular income far outweighs the slog of attending classes and taking exams. Resulting in an estimated 75% drop off rate from all culinary students enrolling in the Pacific region alone.

While the tourism industry in New Zealand booms, with the restaurant sector growing at a rate of 5% per annum for the last 5 years alone, restaurateurs are having to cut opening hours without enough qualified staff in place. But this is not an exclusive New Zealand problem, there is currently a massive world-wide shortage of qualified Culinary professionals.

Low margins on food mean that salaries are no longer the ultimate attraction and employers are having to get creative with their incentivizing to attract and keep the best qualified staff. Profit share, paid accommodation, further education and even yoga classes are just some of the rabbits that restaurant owners are pulling out of hats to top up salaries.

On top of this, current industry requirements often require that trainees need to attend a 6-12-week face–to face training course annually. Often at a high cost to the company responsible for sponsoring the Trainee Chef.

Current growth expectations are that we will need an additional 10% of Chefs per year, each year up until 2030 to meet the demand in the industry. That is a lot of new Chefs that need training.

And with a figure of just 25% course completion from students coming out of the qualified culinary field in the Pacific, it is no surprise that a qualified Chef continues to hold a very solid place on the Long Term Shortage Skills list for New Zealand, where the demand for qualified Chefs continues to grow.

But all of that is about to drastically change.

International Culinary Studio recognized the need to be able offer students all over the world the opportunity to get the qualifications that they want and need.

Together with City & Guilds and NZQA, they offer globally accredited qualifications, online, to everyone from Industry Professionals to absolute beginners, who wish to formalize their education or up-skill to the next level. City & Guilds is the only Industry Qualification accepted by WORLDCHEFS (Previously WACS) as being a benchmark for qualified Chefs.

Now Kiwi restaurant owners can upskill their own staff from their kitchens at work, without them having to take time off to attend classes.

Director of Studies at International Culinary Studio, Chery Nesbitt says : “The concept of earning while you learn is a game changer for those people working in the industry. Never before have students been able to gain globally recognized Chef qualifications online while keeping a full time job. We offer any culinary student the opportunity to get qualified from any kitchen, anywhere in the world.”

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