Welcome to the 15th edition of Service Worx e-newsletter.

Open Season for Retail Christmas Casuals!

Retail is the largest employing industry in the country, employing more than 1.2 million people, and Christmas represents the peak trading period for most retailers. Christmas Casual roles are now being advertised by hundreds of employers, giving students, and those looking for work, a great employment opportunity to join this vibrant industry. Christmas casual roles usually cease in mid to late January, following the post-Christmas sales, however, for those interested in continuing employment, many employers offer ongoing work to Christmas casuals who perform well over this period.

Retail offers a genuine career path, for those interested in moving beyond the shop floor. The current CEOs of both Woolworths and Myer started out as casual frontline employees with Woolworths/Safeway. Woolworths CEO, Michael Luscombe, went through the in-house Management Trainee program before progressing through the ranks. Bernie Brookes, Myer CEO, worked as a casual while completing university, but abandoned his career in teaching when he became aware of the opportunities available within retail. Bernie undertook a number of management trainee programs, which lead to him climbing the corporate ladder within Woolworths before moving to Myer as CEO in 2006.

Generation Y is doing particularly well in retail, as they can grow their careers a lot faster than most other industries. Managers of a supermarket or department store may be responsible for a $10 - $20 million a year business, with hundreds of employees, and increasingly these managers are only in their late 20s.

Retail is well suited to people with an outgoing personality and an ability to relate to customers and staff. Qualifications tend to be less important than experience in retail, although Certificate qualifications can assist promotional opportunities and a wide range of roles are also available in retail corporate offices for university graduates. People looking to build a career in retail should look for roles that offer experience and growth opportunities and recognise that stability is an important attribute as it can demonstrate loyalty as well as providing personal growth and learning.

Retail is one of the most rewarding careers you can have and no matter who you are or what your background, retail can help you achieve your career goals, both within the industry and externally.

Discover Hospitality CDs

As some of you may be aware we have produced a CD replicating the discoverhospitality website. The CD has now been packaged and is ready for distribution. We have 5000, so enough for every, RICA, LCP and School Australia wide.

If you could please advise how many you would like for your region we will organize for them to be couriered to you. All responses should be directed to Hayley at restncat@restaurantcater.asn.au. This is great opportunity for schools to have access to the latest careers information on the hospitality industry, with a direct link to both the discoverhospitality website and the discoverjobs websites.

To the RICAs that already received the CDs and started distributing them - thanks so much we hope they are being well received.

Preparing for Workplacement in the Hospitality Industry

This is a resource available as a PowerPoint presentation that has been extremely well received and used Australia wide by teachers and careers advisers in High Schools, and both Public and Private Training Providers. Restaurant & Catering Australia have updated the presentation and made the data current for 2009, along with inserting a couple of video clips into the presentation. The updated presentation is now available free of charge for anyone who would like a copy. As the presentation now includes links to videos, we are no longer able to send it by email, but will instead mail a CD to those who would like a copy. Please send any requests through to karenj@restaurantcater.asn.au.

Discover Hospitality

Don’t forget www.discoverhospitality.com is now live, if you could spread the word that would be great. A flyer is also available for you to use to promote the website. You can download the flyer by clicking here.