What Hospitality Jobs Are in Demand in Australia?

There is a more reliable answer to this than any provider's marketing claim, and it is published by the Commonwealth: the Core Skills Occupation List. An occupation on the CSOL is one the government has assessed as being in genuine skills shortage, because inclusion is what opens the Skills in Demand visa's Core Skills stream.

So rather than quote job-ad counts that go stale, this page works from that list, and from the occupational classification underneath it. Where it goes beyond the list — in the section on roles the CSOL does not cover — it says so, because that part rests on general industry observation rather than on published data.

The roles behind the headline

The source jobs article describes a broader mix than any migration list: chefs and cooks, waitstaff, bartenders, baristas, front-of-house and hotel managers, and specialist roles such as sommeliers. These jobs involve different work. A chef coordinates food preparation and safety; a waiter manages a guest's service; a bartender combines product knowledge with responsible alcohol service; a barista operates the coffee station and works with guests. Managers coordinate people, resources and service rather than merely performing the same task at a higher level.

Choose by your interests and the work you want to practise. The article does not supply current vacancy counts, and none of these roles is guaranteed to be in demand in every region. The Core Skills Occupation List below answers a narrower migration question; it should not be read as a complete list of hospitality jobs or as a live local labour-market forecast.

First, the classification that everything else hangs off

Skilled migration runs on ANZSCO — the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. One thing to get right before you read any further: the Australian Bureau of Statistics superseded ANZSCO with OSCA in 2024, but migration programs continue to operate on ANZSCO codes. Do not substitute OSCA codes into migration materials. Home Affairs still uses ANZSCO for the skilled occupation lists.

Each ANZSCO occupation carries an indicative skill level, and that is the number that tells you which qualification the occupation is actually pitched at:

Note the Cook entry. The indicative skill level is not "a Certificate III" — it is a Certificate III plus two years of on-the-job training, or a Certificate IV. That is the single most commonly skipped detail in cookery career planning.

Two exclusions in the classification itself are worth knowing, because they stop people nominating the wrong unit group. Cooks, Fast Food Cooks and Kitchenhands are excluded from the Chef unit group, and Chefs, Fast Food Cooks and Kitchenhands are excluded from the Cook unit group. The two occupations are not interchangeable labels for the same work.

Hospitality occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List

The pattern is clear: the kitchen is where the recognised shortage is. Chef, Cook, Baker and Pastrycook are all listed. Accommodation and club management are listed. Cafe or restaurant management is not.

That 141111 absence is a verified negative, not a research gap. The CSOL is a single numerically sorted list; item 37 is Regulatory Affairs Manager and item 38 is Hotel or Motel Manager, so 141111 would sort between them, and a full-text search for both the code and the occupation name returned nothing.

One further caution, and it is the most important sentence on this page for anyone planning a visa. Home Affairs applies caveats to occupations on the list — conditions that can exclude certain employment contexts, such as fast food outlets, limited-service restaurants or businesses below a certain size — and these apply particularly to Chef and Cook. Those caveats were not retrieved for this page and could materially narrow the practical migration pathway. Being on the list is necessary, not sufficient. Verify the current caveats for the specific occupation and employer with the Department of Home Affairs before relying on the table above.

What that means in practice

If you want the strongest demand signal, train for the kitchen. SIT20421 Certificate II in Cookery, SIT30821 Certificate III in Commercial Cookery and SIT40521 Certificate IV in Kitchen Management are the pathway. We hold all three on scope.

Note that SIT20421 is Certificate II in Cookery and SIT20322 is Certificate II in Hospitality — two separate qualifications, both current on scope, and easy to confuse.

The sizes tell you something about the commitment involved. SIT30821 is 25 units, of which 20 are core — one of the least flexible qualifications on our scope, because a cook has to be able to do all of it. SIT40521 is 33 units with 27 core, the largest qualification we deliver and the one with the lowest elective freedom of any. Neither is a short course.

One piece of good news if you trained years ago

Both cookery qualifications are equivalent to the codes they superseded, so an older certificate in that line credits cleanly rather than being written off. The full position on our scope:

• Equivalent to their predecessors: SIT20322, SIT20421, SIT30821, SIT40521 and BSB40520. Both Certificate IIs and both cookery qualifications are in this group, which is unusually helpful — the whole cookery line credits.
• Not equivalent: SIT30622, SIT30722, SIT40422, SIT50322, SIT50422, BSB30120, BSB40120, BSB50120, CHC33021, CHC43015 and CHC43415. CHC43015 maps to two predecessors, CHC40108 and CHC40212.

The practical difference: where the current code is equivalent, credit transfer under Standard 1.7 is a paperwork exercise against your AQF certification documentation or an authenticated VET transcript. Where it is not, expect gap assessment rather than a whole-qualification transfer, and ask which specific units credit rather than assuming either answer.

Which cookery qualification TRA accepts, and for which occupation

We also operate a skills assessment service, and it is limited to exactly two occupations: Chef (351311) and Cook (351411). Trades Recognition Australia assesses tradespersons and technicians only; management occupations are assessed by other authorities, which is why a Diploma of Hospitality Management graduate falls outside this pathway entirely. See skills assessment.

What a TRA assessment actually asks for

Worth knowing early, because the evidence has to be accumulated over years rather than assembled in a fortnight:

• Current culinary experience, skills and knowledge in Western cuisine.
• Employment in the nominated occupation, full-time and paid, for a minimum of 12 months within the past 3 years before lodging the application.
• Original and verifiable documentary evidence for current and all previous education, training and employment — employment letters, contracts, payslips, income statements, tax returns, award certificates and transcripts.
• With formal culinary training, a minimum of 3 years relevant full-time paid work experience. Without formal culinary training, a minimum of 5 years. The same 3-or-5 bar applies to Cook as well as Chef.
• For Chef, ideally currently operating as a Senior Chef with kitchen management responsibility for at least 12 months full-time paid, with evidence of cumulative progression — Cook or Commis Chef, then Chef de Partie, then Senior Chef de Partie, Sous Chef or Head Chef — plus demonstrated competency in kitchen management duties: planning and monitoring cooking operations, managing finances within a budget, designing and costing menus, catering for special dietary requirements and writing staff rosters.
• For Chef, at least three years relevant experience may substitute for formal qualifications — and, conversely, experience or on-the-job training is sometimes required in addition to the qualification rather than instead of it. Holding SIT40521 does not by itself close the experience question.

The two pathways, and the two stages inside each

There is a structural point that is easy to miss and shapes how long the process takes. Two pathways exist: Pathway 1 for applicants without an Australian VET qualification, and Pathway 2 for applicants with one. Which pathway you are on is decided by that single fact.

And each pathway has two stages: a documentary-evidence stage and a technical-interview stage. Passing the paperwork stage is not the assessment outcome — the interview tests the skills the documents assert. That is why the evidence list above matters twice over: it has to be complete enough to get you to the interview, and accurate enough that the interview confirms it.

This page publishes no assessment fee and no processing time, because both are set by the assessing authority and change. Confirm them at the source.

Keeping payslips and a dated record of the sections you have run is not administrative fussiness. It is the assessment.

If you are heading for management, the occupation code matters. A hospitality management qualification is valuable regardless, but a migration plan built on Cafe or Restaurant Manager runs into the CSOL. Hotel or Motel Manager and Licensed Club Manager are on the list. Which occupation the nomination is made in matters more than the qualification title. Get advice from a registered migration agent.

Demand that the CSOL does not capture

The CSOL measures skilled migration shortage, not the whole labour market. Be clear about what follows, though: the roles below are named on the basis of general industry observation rather than published vacancy or shortage data, and this page carries no figures for them. Where you need a defensible number, the CSOL above is the instrument; for anything else, consult the Commonwealth labour-market data directly rather than relying on a training provider's page.

On that basis, plenty of hospitality work is hired for steadily without appearing on the list:

• Food and beverage service — the highest-volume entry point in the industry, and the basis for progression. See restaurant waiting.
• Baristas — consistent turnover and consistent hiring in any city with a coffee culture. See barista coffee course.
• Bar staff — with RSA as the legal prerequisite everywhere. See bartending course.
• Function and event staff — seasonal but substantial.

These roles do not need to be on a migration list to be worth training for. They are how most hospitality careers start.

Gaming roles, where a licence sits in front of the job

One group of roles deserves separate treatment, and not because of demand — this page has no demand data for gaming work either way. It is because the requirements in front of the job are unusually specific, and someone comparing roles needs to know them before choosing a course.

• SITHGAM022 Provide responsible gambling services is a prerequisite. All gaming supervisors and gaming workers must complete it before working in gaming roles. Not afterwards, and not as optional professional development.
• A gaming supervisor must hold an individual or occupational gaming licence. The supervisory titles the material names are pit boss and pit manager: they supervise the operation of table games and work with dealers. The licence is the regulator's decision about the person, and no qualification produces it.
• Competence is game-specific. A gaming supervisor must achieve competence in the units covering the particular table games they supervise — so a general hospitality supervision qualification does not cover the games themselves.

We hold SITHGAM022, SITHGAM023 Attend gaming machines and SITHGAM024 Operate a TAB outlet current on scope, and those units sit in the Gaming elective group of SIT30622 Certificate III in Hospitality rather than in any management qualification. Note also that gaming supervisor or team leader is one of the named job titles in the SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality descriptor, alongside bar supervisor, concierge, duty manager, food and beverage supervisor, front office supervisor, housekeeping supervisor and shift manager.

There is a link back to the CSOL table, too. Licensed Club Manager (141411) is on the list, and gaming is a normal part of what those venues do — so the licensing gate above is a practical consideration for the one listed management occupation that sits closest to gaming. For the licensing steps see how do I get my bar or gaming licence.

What a qualification is worth in a job you can actually get tomorrow

Demand lists are a long-range planning tool. The award is the short-range one — and the first thing to establish is which award, because the premises decides, not the job title. The same cook, in four different venues, sits under four different pay tables:

Each covers its industry to the exclusion of any other modern award. Two traps: clubs are not covered by MA000009 — clause 4.4(d)(i) excludes "clubs registered or recognised under State or Territory legislation" by name, and they sit under MA000058 where the club is both registered under a liquor, gaming, associations or corporations statute and operating not-for-profit for members and the community — and night clubs are not clubs, because a night club is commercial and falls under MA000119.

That distinction has a direct bearing on this page's subject, incidentally: Licensed Club Manager (141411) is on the CSOL, and the venues that occupation describes are the ones covered by MA000058 rather than MA000009.

One more award point specific to gaming: MA000009 carries a separate casino gaming stream with its own rate table, and MA000119 has none. A casino is an MA000009 premises, but a restaurant or night club running gaming machines is an MA000119 premises with no casino gaming classifications to work from, so staff there have to be classified in that award's three streams instead.

The Level 4 floor — and in a kitchen it is the tradesperson grade

This is the demand signal that pays you this year rather than at visa stage. A relevant AQF Certificate III or higher, used at work, sets a minimum classification of Level 4:

For a cook this is unusually concrete in both hospitality awards. Under MA000009 the kitchen stream places Level 4 at Cook (tradesperson) grade 3, with Levels 5 and 6 as Cook (tradesperson) grades 4 and 5, and Level 4 is that award's reference rate. Under MA000119, Schedule A defines Level 4 as "Cook grade 3 (tradesperson)" and "Food and beverage attendant grade 4 (tradesperson)", and the Level 4 rate is that award's standard rate. The MA000009 cook stream reaches grade 3 by apprenticeship, trade test or the appropriate level of training — three routes, not one.

So SIT30821 Certificate III in Commercial Cookery, used at work, is an explicit route to a tradesperson grade without serving an apprenticeship — in a pub, a restaurant or a cafe alike. Against a CSOL place that may take years to convert, that is the near-term return on the same qualification.

Three differences to respect, because this is a pay entitlement:

• MA000009 and MA000119 require you to make use of the skills and knowledge derived from the Certificate III competencies. It is not automatic on completion.
• MA000058 states the floor for "AQF Certificate III qualifications" without the words "or higher", and adds that the Fair Work Commission may require the employee to demonstrate that they utilise the relevant skills.
• Dispute routes differ: clause 40 under MA000009, clause 34 under MA000119, and referral to the Fair Work Commission under MA000058.

Under MA000009 the classification structure runs from an Introductory level through Levels 1 to 6 across five streams — food and beverage, kitchen, guest services, clerical and casino gaming — and clause 14 obliges the employer to classify every employee under Schedule A. The other three awards each have their own Schedule A.

No rates are printed here. Award rates re-set every 1 July, so use the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool against the award code that covers the employer.

The sector we are registered in but do not advertise

Worth knowing if you are choosing on demand: our scope includes CHC33021 Certificate III in Individual Support, CHC43015 Certificate IV in Ageing Support and CHC43415 Certificate IV in Leisure and Health. These qualifications sit on the same provider's scope as the hospitality ones, and hospitality experience transfers more readily than people expect, because food service in aged care is a category one food business under Standard 3.2.2A and the customer-facing skills carry over. None of the three occupations they lead to appears on the CSOL table above, so this page makes no shortage claim about them either way — check the Commonwealth labour-market data if that is the basis of your decision.

One thing to check first: in New South Wales and Queensland, food safety for health and community services runs on the HLTFSE001, HLTFSE005 and HLTFSE007 units rather than the hospitality food safety units. That is not the position in Victoria.

These qualifications are effectively invisible on our website. Ask.

Two constraints on availability

The scope is bigger than the website, and one item on it has expired. The training.gov.au scope register for RTO 3722 carries 17 current qualifications, 81 current skill sets and 579 current units, every component at extent "Deliver and assess". One of the 17, SIR30216 Certificate III in Retail, has an end date of 28 June 2024 and is not available. The other 16 run to 30 June 2032, which is both their qualification end date and, separately, the end of our current registration period — ASQA's current period for RTO 3722 runs 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2032. We have held the code since 1 June 1994, so provider longevity is not in question here.

Delivery states are not uniform — but the scope register will not tell you which. Both Diplomas are Victoria only; SIT30821 Commercial Cookery is limited to South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, and SIT40521 Kitchen Management to Victoria and Western Australia. Those limits are not carried in the scope data, which records no jurisdiction against any component, so they come from our own delivery information and should be confirmed directly rather than read off the register.

CRICOS is narrower still. International students can enrol only in SIT40422 (116358F), SIT50322 (118427D) and SIT50422 (115534C). Neither dedicated cookery qualification is CRICOS-registered — which is why the culinary stream of the Diploma is the only culinary route open on a student visa.

About us

We are Complete Hospitality Training — legal name Complete Hospitality Training (Vic) Pty Ltd, RTO 3722, CRICOS 04242E, ABN 27 006 947 262, ACN 006 947 262. Registered as RTO 3722 since 1 June 1994. Regulated nationally by ASQA since 8 September 2017, when registration transferred from the Victorian regulator (VRQA). The current registration period runs 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2032, exercised by ASQA under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011.

Level 3, 28 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, and 410 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010. Contact melbourne@cht.edu.au or +61 3 9654 1554.

Trading names on the RTO 3722 record. Five are current — Victorian Bar School (from 1 June 1994, the original), Complete Hospitality Training (2011), Ready Serve Achieve Melbourne (2018), Coffee School by CHT (2021) and Alchemy Institute of Australia (2024). A sixth, Complete Healthcare Training, ran from 24 October 2023 to 19 April 2025 and has ended. A certificate issued under any of those names is an RTO 3722 credential.

We link to the relevant course and regulatory sources in this guide. Check those sources for current requirements, and confirm course availability, delivery, fees and entry requirements with us before enrolling.

Source records and further guidance

We link the unit records and regulator guidance relevant to this page below. Check the current source before making an enrolment, licensing or employment decision.

• SIT40521 Certificate IV in Kitchen Management
• SIT30821 Certificate III in Commercial Cookery
• SIT20421 Certificate II in Cookery
• SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality
• SIT30622 Certificate III in Hospitality
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Queensland)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Western Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (South Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Tasmania)
• Food Standards Code — Standards 3.2.2 and 3.2.2A (food safety practices and food safety management tools)
• Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)
• Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119)