Club industry leaders have called on the newly minted Labor Federal Government to subsidise health insurance, accommodation and training for overseas workers as part of a plan to kickstart the hospitality industry.
Despite a global shortage of hospitality staff, industry-leading training and workforce solutions group Ausphin believes Australia could be a main global attraction for a workforce looking to make an early move.
“I believe the above would make Australia stand out from other competing countries to attract hospitality professionals,” said Ausphin Group founder & CEO Rachelle Yilmaz.
The Albanese Government has also been called on to provide additional funds to go towards short skillset hospitality courses to help fast-track people into the hospitality industry and ensure a consistent standard of quality training across the industry.
“Government should allocate training funds to upskill international students in order to help bolster the shortage of employees in the industry” added Andrew Lewis CEO of Allara Learning.
Allara has also called on the Federal Government to continue to support employers through wage and tax relief schemes so they are able to invest in training new and existing staff.
The Government is supporting small businesses to upskill their employees by introducing the Skills and Training Boost. Under the last Morrison Federal Budget, small businesses with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50m were given access to a 20 per cent bonus tax deduction for the cost of external training courses delivered to their employees by providers registered in Australia.
That meant for every $100 a club spent on training, they’d receive a $120 tax deduction. There is also no limit on how much spending on training courses can be deducted by a small business at the bonus rate of 120 per cent, but certain rules apply: The course must be run by an external education provider; the training provider needs to be registered in Australia; in-house and on-the-job training is not eligible; nor is money spent training people who are not employees of the business. The courses can be provided in person (only in Australia) or online.
The boost will apply to eligible expenditure incurred between 29 March 2022 and 30 June 2024.