Tourism sector boom could be good news for employees with disability

A partnership between a prominent disability service provider and the tourism sector could get more people with disability into employment.

Tucked amongst the gumtrees on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Sages Cottage is an oasis of employment for people with disability.

The farm’s Harvest Cafe is run by six young people with intellectual disability, supported by 20 coaches from Wallara, a disability support provider. They’re trained by chefs and hospitality managers with extensive experience in the higher levels of the industry.

Olivia Tomasiuk joined the Harvest Cafe team a few months ago. She serves customers, makes coffees and helps make some of the food the cafe serves using ingredients from the garden.

From the moment she started working at Sages, she said she felt supported and encouraged to take on her dream of working with customers, and in her downtime she can pursue her other interest in spending time with the animals on site.

Tomasiuk said employers need to recognise the skills that people with disability can bring to their workplaces.

“I am driven. [Someone] doesn’t have to tell me twice. I’m the one who always does things without [being asked] how I could help.”

Tourism sector forecasts demand

The tourism sector in Victoria is forecast to grow in the coming years, leading to a surge in demand for workers, according to Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) Victorian general manager Dougal Hollis.

“The challenge that we’ve got at the moment is that a lot of hoteliers are still only able to fill their hotels to 75 per cent occupancy, for example, because they don’t have the labour force to service it to the full extent,” Hollis explained.

That demand for labour means the industry needs to “be fishing in different talent pools”, he added.

As a parent of a child with disability, Hollis is also keenly aware of the challenges that people with disability face in finding employment — and he knows how important it is for workplaces to reflect the diversity of the community they serve.

TAA has recently embarked on a partnership with Sages Cottage to support people with disability to take up some of those roles in hospitality and accommodation.

Hollis said hotels can provide a breadth of opportunities for people with different personalities and skillsets — including people with disability looking for higher-level, rather than entry level, positions.

Asked why it’s taken so long for the industry to consider hiring more people with disability, Hollis said the industry had tended to rest on its laurels.

“We’ve had those international backpackers and holiday makers coming in… and so we haven’t really had to be that resourceful in terms of how we look for that labour,” he said.

“It’s through necessity that now we’ve had to focus on building a local labour force. I think that’s why it’s probably taken longer, because we haven’t been focusing on it.”

But he agreed that pathways to employment for people with disability in the tourism sector shouldn’t be temporary.

“This shouldn’t be just a bandaid solution for now. That’s why I’m particularly attracted to it and really keen to get these partnerships with the likes of Wallara off the ground because that’ll enable us to get a local cohort going and develop people with a passion for the industry.”

Phil Hayes-Brown, CEO of Wallara, said while the sorts of opportunities provided by Wallara are important people with disability want to move into open employment too.

What they need, he said, are more opportunities to do so.

The partnership with TAA is in its early days, but Hayes-Brown said he is determined to show hospitality and tourism managers just what people with disability are capable of.

“We’re excited about talking to people like TAA… and we’re going to connect the dots, because we’ve got people [with disability] now that are ready to go,” he said.

Hayes-Brown agreed and said open employers were often surprised at how well their employees with disability turn out.

“There is a stigma out there. There’s a lack of confidence about what people with disabilities can do,” he said.

“So we’ve got an education process to do. That means we need visibility; we need employers to be educated and shown what people with disabilities are capable of… to correct the misunderstandings [and] get rid of myths.”

Federal government pilots tourism employment program

Calls for greater — and better — employment for people with disability reached a crescendo at last month’s federal Jobs and Skills Forum.

Just a few days after the forum wrapped up, social services minister Amanda Rishworth, in conjunction with Tourism Minister Don Farrell, announced a $3.3 million pilot program to get people with disability into “sustained jobs” in the tourism industry.

Called the Visitor Economy Disability Pilot, the ministers said the program would “address barriers previously identified by small and medium tourism businesses in recruiting, retaining and progressing staff with disability [including] a lack of time or capability to recruit people living with disability, confusion on how or where to seek support, and employment service providers focusing on supporting jobseekers-only rather than also on employers.”

The program will fund place-based roles called ‘local navigators’, who will be trialled over 12 months in regional locations to help support businesses looking to hire people with disability.

“Finalising this pilot came directly from discussions at the Jobs and Skills Summit. We are committed to closing the gap in disability employment and this is one step towards this,” Rishworth said, while Farrell said people with disability could help meet the forecast demand in the tourism sector.

 “The tourism sector is crying out for workers and if we can create pathways to open up jobs and careers for people living with disability in this sector it is a good thing for everyone,” he said.