The cost of training chefs remains a major barrier to addressing skills shortages in commercial kitchens across the country, according to restaurateurs.
They want to see apprenticeship programmes that were established nearly a decade ago put on a par with traditional craft ones so as to substantially boost participation rates.
Just 787 apprentice chefs have been registered in the last seven years while more than 2,000 permits a year are being issued to chefs coming from outside the EU as hotels and restaurants struggle to fill vacancies.
Those in the sector say there is no shortage of young people wanting to train as chefs, with Conrad Howard, co-founder of the Market Lane group of five restaurants in Cork, saying the company had 200 applications for the one apprentice position they advertised recently.
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Two years ago, he says, they took on five but the costs involved made such a number impossible to repeat.
The issue, he says, is that apprentice chefs are treated differently from the likes of apprentice electricians, plumbers and fitters, who are paid by their employers while on-site and receive an allowance from their local Education and Training Board (ETB) for time spent in the classroom.
By contrast, the more recently established apprentice chef programme requires employers to pay all of the wages involved despite the fact that the apprentice is generally only in their kitchen three days a week and in an ETB for the other two.
A €2,000 grant is provided as a contribution to the costs involved, but those in the business say it is not enough. In June, the Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said there were just 157 apprentice chefs in the system at the time, with just nine having commenced apprenticeships in the early months of this year.
“We are actually getting other restaurants coming to us saying they had started an apprentice but, having realised they had to pay them while they were in college, they simply couldn’t afford to continue with it,” said Mr Howard.
The Market Lane group was made up of five restaurants of different sizes – Elbow Lane, Goldie, Market Lane, Orso and The Castle Cafe – and after taking on five apprentices last time, the company realised it wasn’t viable for its smaller operations.
The National Apprenticeship website indicates that just 122 restaurants, hotels or other caterers are registered to provide commis chef apprenticeships that lead to a level 6 qualification, while the figure for chef de partie (level 7) is 14 and for sous chef (level 8) just two. The higher level courses are run in conjunction with technical universities.
Mr Howard said he had raised the issues involved with policymakers, who reminded him apprentices didn’t have to be paid the national minimum wage. He said that “wouldn’t fly” with workers out of their teens, including all of those pursuing the higher qualifications, as they generally have financial commitments.
Joe Barrett, owner of Bang restaurant in Dublin, agrees the provision of information around the scheme could be improved but says he generally thinks the apprenticeship programme, which he has used to upskill existing staff, is good.
“For me it is about providing a reward for somebody who is working well,” he says. “We supported two young members of staff in the apprentice scheme in TU Dublin last year and both were outrageously happy to get the opportunity.”
One, he said, subsequently had to drop out for personal reasons, “but when that other one finishes his training he will be the first person in his family to have a degree and all of these qualifications open the door to opportunities.”
There are shortages at all levels and those in the sector say the potential exists to train far more people keen to pursue a career as a chef. They say, however, more support is required.
“The problem is fundamentally that the costs involved are very challenging for restaurants generally, but particularly for smaller independent restaurants and the fact numbers are very small is linked to that,” says Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants’ Association of Ireland, who suggests it is precisely the sort of situation the National Training Fund should be used to address.
“We should be training more than a thousand chefs but for that to happen we need to have a level playing field between the different types of apprenticeships and we should also have a single agency to oversee training in hospitality, as Cert used to do; an organisation that would liaise with all of the stakeholders including the further and higher education institutions.”
Solas, which is currently responsible for the apprenticeship programmes, says the newer, “consortia-led” (industry-led) schemes have expanded substantially since their establishment and that more than 30,000 apprentices are in the system, across industries including construction, finance, IT, hospitality and others.
However, it is Government policy, says Solas, that these apprentices do not receive allowances from any State body while in college or university.
