Employee shortages mean opportunities abound for Alberta students studying to launch careers in the hospitality industry, but low pay remains an issue, say educators.

Roughly 98 per cent of those who graduated last year from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's professional cooking, baking and pastry arts, retail meat-cutting and hotel and restaurant management programs found work within six months of finishing classes, according to a SAIT survey.

However, graduates "come out of a two-year program or a one-and-a-half year program and they're getting ... into the $10- to $12-an-hour range, which isn't much when you compare that with a graduate from an energy program that might be coming out at around $40,000 a year (about $20 per hour for a 40-hour week)," says Fraser Wilson, dean of business and tourism. He notes average incomes will grow if the worker has access to tips.

Fraser says he is constantly telling industry that students look at salaries when investigating employment opportunities stemming from the different SAIT programs.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Student chef Heather Redoble works in the kitchen at SAIT, where a $20-million training facility is in the planning stage.

"(Industry) comes back saying: 'We're operating on tight bottom lines and we just can't afford to pay that kind of money.' That may be true, but the reality is, things are OK right now, we're still able to provide you with graduates, but at some point in time that might become difficult."

Lindy Rollingson, president and CEO of the Edmonton-based Alberta Restaurant and Foodservices Association, says the reality is that margins are tight for most food-service businesses. She acknowledges higher salaries are necessary to attract qualified and experienced staff, but adds making that work is easier said than done.

"The bottom line matters in our business. We're looking at (margins) of two to three per cent, and there's not a lot of wiggle room in there," Rollingson says.

Chain restaurants able to purchase in bulk are the ones that can afford to pay better, while the "the mom-and-pop operations have a lot tougher time keeping the costs down" and therefore can't afford higher salaries, she says.

Still, Rollingson says that with passion for the work, the proper training and a few years of experience, professional chefs can be in a position to "name their price," because it is an employee's market, something that may well result in higher-priced meals for consumers.

Even though initial salaries fall short of other sectors such as energy or IT, demand for most programs in Wilson's department outstrips the space available by a ratio of about two to one, except for retail meat-cutting, which is a tougher sell.

"Those kids all get good jobs, but you've got to bring them off the farm in Saskatchewan to really have them appreciate there's a field here."

Brent Ritchie, a professor for the Haskayne School of Business's bachelor of hotel and resort management (BHRM) program at the University of Calgary, says his graduates receive better than average remuneration after completing the degree. Nonetheless, he concedes salaries continue to be a pressing matter.

"Payment is an issue, especially when you're trying to compete with the oilpatch. We'll never compete with the oilpatch, but on the other hand, when the day comes that the oilpatch isn't around, we're still going to be here."

The BHRM began as a way to give highly qualified students emerging from SAIT's two-year diploma course the opportunity to earn a university degree. Now, the program has agreements with 23 other technical institutes across the country, taking the top two grads each year from these schools.

"The industry really likes this combination; they were the ones that really put us on to this, combining hands-on (from SAIT) and managerial experience," Ritchie says.

"The hotel industry wants people who have some strategic thinking as well as their hands-on training."

At NAIT, meanwhile, graduates find there's no shortage of job opportunities - only 2.8 per cent of graduates of the culinary arts diploma program from 2004 were still seeking work after six months, according to a graduate placement survey - but like their counterparts from SAIT, they're facing a low pay scale.

Of those NAIT grads queried, half received a starting salary of $1,800-$2,299 per month; 39 per cent drew a wage ranging from $1,400- $1,799 per month; six per cent were making $2,300-$2,500 per month; while another six per cent earned $3,800-$4,199.

According to SAIT data, its 2003 hotel and restaurant management graduates made an average annual salary of $28,000; baking and pastry arts students made $21,600 on average; and professional cooking students started at an average of $23,000 a year.

The hospitality sector must also reinvest in education, something that does occur, but far less frequently compared to other industries. Traditionally the tourism sector doesn't reinvest in education nearly as much as other industries, such as oil and gas, Wilson says.

"We don't have a history of that, but I'm hopeful that will change because we're talking about building a new centre for hospitality training and education."

Wilson says his department plans to lobby industry to kick in funds for a new hospitality centre on SAIT's campus that would include state-of-the-art training facilities, a pair of restaurants and even a 100-room hotel, perhaps run by a national hotel chain. He foresees the $20-million-plus centre being built on a hill overlooking downtown Calgary.

"We're putting the actual plan together now, so we're hopeful that sometime in the fall we'll have a business case on what it would look like and what it would encompass," Wilson says.

The U of C's Ritchie is also eager to see the BHRM program grow in tandem with a planned expansion of the bachelor of commerce program.

Growth will likely mean searching for corporate donors, which is nothing new for the BHRM.

Five years ago, Fairmont Hotels donated $500,000, which allowed the program to expand to draw the best students from across Canada.

Meanwhile at NAIT, the PTI Group Inc., an Edmonton-based catering outfit that services remote energy and mining projects and the Canadian military in Afghanistan, earlier this year ponied up $250,000 for NAIT's bid to create a new centre for culinary arts.

The institute says the donation will help NAIT to refurbish labs, update equipment and introduce new technologies to students.

Alan Konkin, PTI Group director of human resources, says his company recognizes the need to put something back into education if it is to rely on the steady stream of qualified grads to staff its camps.

"As a company, we feel we have a strong role to play in developing the labour pool that we rely for servicing our customers," Konkin says.

"We do hire people from NAIT, we find the program does work for us. We like to see people interested in the culinary arts practise their craft and we can provide that opportunity in many of our camp operations."

(John Ludwick can be reached at john@businessedge.ca)