Quebec may ease entry rules to aid staff crisis
The Canadian province of Quebec is considering cutting the waiting times for work permits in order to attract more catering staff from Britain.
UK recruitment agency Ready Steady Staff has linked up with an agency in Canada to provide trained Britons to help tackle a shortage of hospitality staff in the Quebec area.
According to Sylvie Lafrance, director of hospitality recruitment agency Aacolyte, the staff shortfall has worsened over the past four years, with kitchen jobs at all levels the hardest to fill. She added that the city of Montreal was short of 1,000 chefs.
Her agency is talking with the Quebec tourism ministry in order to speed up the waiting time for work permits, which is typically about 24 days against just one week for Canadians seeking work permits in the UK. She added that the Quebec government was looking into the recruitment problem.
Ready Steady Staff recruitment agent Bruno Laurent is already talking to Lambeth College in London about possible candidates. He is seeking 18- to 30-year-olds with some experience of catering, even if it is just working part-time in a bar or fast-food restaurant while a student.
Fully-trained staff will go straight to Canada, while others will undergo three to six months training to required levels, including in the French language, before taking up a one-year contract overseas.
Laurent's company specialises in helping workers in one country take up hospitality positions abroad. It is working on a programme in France to train 24 unemployed people with some catering experience to work for a year with Initial Style Conferences in the UK in a variety of roles (Caterer, 25 May, page 8). It is also training commis chefs from France for contracts in the UK.
Laurent said the Canadian project is expected to expand to other countries, and will also involve finding Canadian staff positions abroad.
by Angela Frewin