The craft and micro beer brewing industry is booming around Australia, with a new brewery opening on average every five days. For an industry with such rapid growth, access to formal vocational training has been a challenge, but it is also part of the success story.
Stephen Nelsen, Head Brewery Lecturer at TAFE SA, is part of the solution to meeting industry training needs. The course he runs, Certificate III in Food Processing, contextualised for brewing, is always fully booked, with approximately 30 per cent of students enrolling from interstate.
Stephen said, “When I first started running the course six years ago the students were from South Australia only, and already working in industry. More recently, they are coming from all over Australia and are mostly career-change seekers, with start-up breweries or wanting to move in to brewing.
“There are backyard brewers starting up every day. They need the training to develop their commercial brewing knowledge and to manage the health and safety risks that come with producing food and beverage products.”
Stephen said students are queuing up for his course, and he enjoys working in an area of such high demand.
“Ideally, I would put on an additional trainer, but it is hard to find trainers when they are all busy brewing beer!
“Other states are bringing in vocational brewing courses, but there is still a lack of supply of training. In the last five years we could have delivered training to twice the number of students, if we had more capacity.”
Stephen Nelsen, Head Brewery Lecturer at TAFE SA
Part of the response to meeting the high student demand, was a recent project managed by Skills Impact to look at brewing skills.
Michael Hartman, CEO of Skills Impact said, “When we started looking at brewing skills, we quickly came across a whole range of artisan businesses, fermenting all types of ingredients, for a wide range of food and beverage products. Our brewing project turned into a project to create a Certificate IV in Artisan Fermented Products, which is now available for training providers to deliver.”
Stephen said this new qualification is an exciting development because it includes more specific brewing skills.
He said he has future plans to deliver this new qualification, but for now he would like to trial a new trainee program, where the Certificate III can be delivered through a combination of workplace training and formal TAFE education. He expects the traineeship will lead into the Certificate IV pathway, offering higher level training for those managing the brewing process or starting their own business.
The traineeship program will run for the first time this year. The South Australian Government will fund twelve brewery workers to undertake the traineeship.
Stephen believes the traineeship format will offer industry the flexibility to continue operations and ensure quality training.
Janie and Mark Butterworth, owners of Beer Garden Brewing, agree and have plans to put two trainees through this program.
Janie acknowledges the positive role training plays for regional communities. She said, “Support like this for regional business is really important for jobs growth, retaining a population base and giving opportunities to expand the knowledge base and engagement of employees.”
Janie is a graduate of the Certificate III herself, enrolling in the course prior to launching their business in Port Lincoln.
“Commercial brewing education via the TAFE has been crucial in the success of our business giving us a commercial advantage. The technical focus of the Certificate III, which has been completed by myself and our brewers Dan Treagus and Jake Nicholas means that we have the capability to produce award winning, world class beer in our beautiful but isolated part of the world,” said Janie.
Jake Nicholas, Janie Butterworth and Dan Treagus. Photo credit to Robert Lang Photography
Another recent graduate, Lachy Mutton said the course helped with the success of his brewing business and down the track would like to see a few of his employees do the course too.
Similar to the Butterworth’s, Lachy’s business was in start-up mode when he enrolled for the course.
A chef by trade, Lachy had been brewing beer as a hobby for many years. His friends liked what they were tasting and encouraged him to bring his beer into his Mount Gambier restaurant Sorrentos Cafe.
“I decided to bite the bullet and start Little Rippa Brewing Company to bring my own beer into my restaurant. That’s also when I decided to enrol in a course to increase my knowledge and skills.
“The course helped me to produce more consistent products and expand my business from a domestic operation to a commercial level operation. I have gone from brewing 100 litre batches to 15,000 litre batches,” said Lachy.
Lachy Mutton, Head Brewer and Owner of Little Rippa Brewing Company
Last year, Lachy was also awarded TAFE SA Brewery Student of the Year.