Abstract
Since 1994, South Africa has witnessed an exceptional growth of the tourism sector. The hospitality sector is following a same positive trend however, there is not an appropriate growth of its human resources. South Africa, as many other countries, suffers a skills shortage of catering employees such as executive chefs and cooks. In addition, the historical context of South Africa has produced a specific skewed demographic picture of kitchen staff that now needs to be rebalanced. The skills shortage of kitchen staff could seriously affect the quality of service of the growing hospitality sector. This paper intends to investigate the context and problems related to kitchen staff shortages in South Africa. A literature review of factors such as low wages, unsociable and long hours will be outlined. Thereafter, the specific context of South Africa will be investigated. The specific history of the country has influenced also the hospitality (and kitchen staff) milieu, thus issues in the transformation of the sector will need to be put forward. The paper will conclude with some possible suggestion to decrease the skill shortage in kitchen staff in South Africa.
Highlights
The tourism sector has had global growth during the last 50 years(Telfer and Sharpley, 2008: 24)
In South Africa the tourism sector has been identified as fundamental economic sector that should drive “economic growth, upliftment of local communities, and transformation” (Maumbe & Van wyk, 2011: 366)
Studies related to issues of skills shortage of chefs has been done in various countries, such as Australia (Robinson et al 2010), United Kingdom (Pratten & O'Leary, 2007), and Spain (Marchante et al, 2006).Skills shortage in the hospitality industry is shared by both developed and developing countries (Goldsmith & Mohd Zahari, 1994: 28; Robinson et al, 2010: 483)
Summary
The tourism sector has had global growth during the last 50 years(Telfer and Sharpley, 2008: 24). In South Africa the growth of tourism has been exceptional since 1994 (the year of the first democratic election in South Africa) whenthe country rejoined the global context after the years of isolation. In this regard the South African Tourism(SAT, 2006: 12) 2005 Tourism Annual Report mentions that since 1994 tourism (foreign tourist arrivals) has increased by 100% in 11 years. The relationship between the growth of the tourism and hospitality sectors and the skill shortage within the same industries has been debated and mostly agreed on (Maumbe & Van wyk, 2011: 366). The aim of this paper is to investigate, with specific reference to South Africa, the issues and problems around the shortage of skilled personneland transformation within the hospitality sector with specific reference to the kitchen brigade
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