Skilled workers are in short supply according to Scott Rudkin from The Roastery

Scott Rudkin from The Roastery said he had trouble finding and keeping skilled staff.

“Skilled workers are a huge issue,” Mr Rudkin said.

“The primary problem is hospitality staff are usually younger and they’re heading off to university where the shining lights of the cities are attractive.”

Mr Rudkin said he wanted to be able to teach skills to people and keep them in the area.

“People should see hospitality as a career, not a stop-gap,” he said.

“We can develop those skills and impart coffee knowledge and we’d love to get some older workers.”

According to Mr Rudkin, part of the problem in keeping staff was time-pressure, with the bulk of their 400 cups of coffee each day going out the door between 9am and 11am.

“You get busy people coming in and they may look stressed but you can help lighten their mood and that’s important,” Mr Rudkin said.

“We can create an experience for a customer and help make their day better.

“I tell staff to put love into what they do, because if you put passion in and enjoy what you do the end result will always be better.”

However, it wasn’t only the hospitality industry struggling with the skills shortage.

Paul Pierotti from Griffith Business Chamber said there were a number of industries looking for workers including accounting, engineering and law.

“There’s a huge skills gap,” Mr Pierotti said.

“Sadly, for hospitality, we don’t have many people looking for those kinds of jobs. Skilling people was the instigating focus of the Deakin University ‘grow our own’ project.”

Mr Pierotti said another factor was whether people in business could find someone who was employable.

“There are people who can’t or don’t want to work,” he said. “Some aren’t willing to do the hard yards, they just want to go straight to the top.”

Young people willing to have a go would be able to find jobs but would need to set themselves apart to employers, Mr Pierotti said.