Academy aims to bridge unemployment gap
LONEHILL – The Service Academy is a business that aims to provide good workers for other businesses.
The Service Academy is a business that aims to provide good workers for other businesses. According to StatsSA, a whopping 29 per cent of adult South Africans are currently unemployed.
Conversely, according to Moneyweb the formal sector, including the hotel and restaurant industries, added about 67 000 more jobs from 2018. The Service Academy, located in Studio Office Park in Lonehill, hopes to become the link between the two extremes, that is, help the unemployed find work in established and growing businesses while supplying foodservice businesses with an easily accessible, fully trained and competent workforce.
The academy trains servers and baristas, and once participants graduate they help them look for employment. The founders Cuan Wood and Warren Kinsella have owned or worked at about 10 restaurants between them over the past couple of decades, and so use their own knowledge and experience when it comes to training others.
“Restaurant owners want reliable staff but don’t always have the time and skills to train staff effectively, There is a big gap between what new hires can do and what business owners need,” explained Wood. “We want to bridge that gap. After our time in the industry, it’s time to give back – there’s so much opportunity out there, but no one’s unearthing it. Businesses are looking for team players, employees who are able to up sell and do more than just serve, workers who have the right personalities for the job with a level of maturity.
“This job is not always easy, and good servers or baristas will have confidence.” Kinsella added, “Added to that, business owners want people who are loyal. They don’t want people who are only in it for the money but someone who is committed and a hard worker.”
The premises of the academy is divided into three distinct parts to help with training. One room is dedicated to learning theory and is filled with desks and chairs, the main room is beautifully decorated to resemble a restaurant setting with tables, chairs and even the same computer system that restaurants use, while the third room is filled with computers. “Once participants have passed the course, they use these computers to look for work,” Kinsella said.
“It’s a way for them to keep all there documents in one place, and they upload their information into a register that businesses have access to so they can look for employees. “Businesses can choose who they want to hire based on factors like closeness to the job, and we teach our trainees how to write their CVs as well in a professional way including focusing on relevant experience and information.” Although only in its early stages, Wood and Kinsella are already looking to the future of the academy. “We would like to take this regionally and eventually nationally,” Wood said.
“We’re also in the process of getting this course accredited with the South African Qualifications Authority. We also want to begin attracting school leavers aged about 18 or 19 to train with us, as now most of our participants are about 22 or 23 and we want to expand.”
Details: The Service Academy www.theserviceacademy.co.za; the Service Academy Facebook page.
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