New apprenticeships to help combat chef shortage in Scotland
The Scottish government has responded to top chefs' concerns regarding employment during the chef shortage.
- Why does Simon Hulstone think there's an attitude crisis and not a skills crisis?
- What are restaurants doing to try and combat the chef shortage?
- The Times: Restaurants crippled by staff shortage, warn chefs
This follows an article by The Times earlier this week, where two of Scotlands top chefs, Nick Nairn and Andrew Fairlie spoke out about the difficulties they face when hiring chefs.
Image from @NickNairn
on Twitter
Speaking to The Times on Tuesday, Nick Nairn said: “There’s a crippling shortage of talent out there at the moment...Speak to any chef around the country and they will tell you they can’t get fully staffed.
“Everybody is chasing around desperately trying to find new people. This has been building slowly for the past couple of years, but now it has got to the point where I’m tearing my hair out.”
In a plea to recruit more chefs, Nick Nairn posted a video on Twitter 'calling all chefs' to get in touch for positions at his Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn at the Hilton Dunblane Hydro. (See below for video)
Two Michelin starred chef Andrew Fairlie also expressed his concerns about staffing, particularly post-Brexit at his Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.
He told The Times: “Everyone thinks that because we are a two-star restaurant we will have a queue of people wanting to work for us. That’s just not true and we are suffering like everyone else.”
“A huge part of our workforce is made up of overseas Europeans. They are uncertain and worried about the future.”
Scotland's employability minister Jamie Hepburn has confirmed that additional training programmes will be implemented if there is enough demand from Scottish business owners.
- Read more in The Times article: Chef apprenticeships to ease staffing crisis
He said: “These comments from two of Scotland’s top chefs reinforce the views of a wide range of companies that Scotland must continue to be able to access skills and labour from within the EU,” he said.
“We will take action to mitigate the impact where we can.”
CALLING ALL CHEFS RT PLEASE:)! pic.twitter.com/i4umMnz1VT
— Nick Nairn (@NickNairn) August 1, 2017
By Jenna Lloyd
@canteenjenna
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