What Jobs Do Hospitality Management Graduates Do?

SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management is a management qualification, and its graduates go into roles that carry responsibility for other people's output. This page sets out what those roles are, what the qualification is and is not, what legal duties come with it, and one migration fact that materially affects planning.

The qualification

That last row matters and is easy to miss. One caution about where to verify it, though: the training.gov.au scope register for RTO 3722 — which carries 17 current qualifications, 81 current skill sets and 579 current units, every component at extent "Deliver and assess" — records no jurisdiction against any component. The Victoria-only limit therefore cannot be read off the register; it comes from our own delivery information. If you are planning to study outside Victoria, confirm it with us directly before building a plan around it.

At AQF 5, the qualification signals that you apply specialised knowledge and take responsibility for the output of others — a different thing from being good at the operational job, which is what Certificate III and IV describe.

What is actually in the core, and why it matches the job description

Only 11 of the 28 units are core, so the elective choice genuinely shapes the outcome. But the core is a precise description of a venue manager's week:

Two of those are the honest reason the Diploma is a different qualification rather than a longer one. SITXGLC002 and SITXWHS007 are compliance units. A venue manager is the person who carries legal risk and work health and safety, and the training package puts both in the core rather than leaving them to chance.

Note also the elective structure: one unit from Group A (Hygiene), one from Group B (Operations), eleven from Group C (Hospitality) and four from Group C, Group D, elsewhere in SIT or another current training package. The Group B Operations requirement is the interesting one. Its options include SITHCCC043 Work effectively as a cook, SITHIND008 Work effectively in hospitality service and SITHKOP013 Plan cooking operations. In other words, a hospitality management Diploma obliges you to take at least one operational unit. You cannot manage a venue from a spreadsheet alone, and the packaging rules say so.

The elective bank also includes genuine business content — payroll (BSBHRM416, BSBHRM526), operational planning (BSBOPS502), business risk (BSBOPS504), marketing opportunity assessment (BSBMKG431), financial reporting (BSBFIN401) and sustainability policy (BSBSUS511). Those are the units that separate a manager from a senior operator.

The two streams share one national code. For the difference see the culinary and hotel management streams of SIT50422, and the two workplace delivery pages: culinary and hotel management.

The roles graduates move into

Front of house and venue

• Restaurant or venue manager
• Assistant manager, duty manager, floor manager
• Bar manager
• Maitre d' or head waiter in a larger venue

Accommodation

• Front office manager
• Rooms division roles
• Guest services manager

Food and beverage operations

• Food and beverage manager
• Banquet or functions manager
• Catering operations

Clubs

• Club manager or duty manager in a registered not-for-profit club — a distinct sector with its own award, as set out below

Gaming

• Gaming supervisor or team leader — a job title that appears in the descriptor for SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality, alongside bar supervisor, concierge, duty manager, food and beverage supervisor, front office supervisor, housekeeping supervisor and shift manager
• Pit boss or pit manager on a table-games floor
• These roles carry a licensing gate that no qualification removes. See the section below before planning around them

Events and functions

• Functions coordinator or manager — with SIT50322 Diploma of Event Management as the more specialised alternative, also Victoria only, and notably more core-heavy at 13 core of 20 units

Beyond a single venue

• Multi-site or area management, with experience
• Operations roles in hospitality groups
• Opening your own venue — where the business units in the Diploma earn their place

What the job legally obliges you to do

This is the part most course descriptions leave out, and it is the substance of SITXWHS007 and SITXGLC002.

First: which award covers your venue

As a manager you are usually the person applying the award, so getting this wrong is a systematic underpayment rather than a rounding error. The premises decides, not the job title, and there are four awards in and around hospitality:

Each covers its industry to the exclusion of any other modern award, so exactly one applies to your business. The boundaries that most often get misapplied:

• Clubs are not covered by MA000009. Clause 4.4(d)(i) expressly excludes "clubs registered or recognised under State or Territory legislation". A registered club is covered by MA000058, and only where it is both registered under a liquor, gaming, associations or corporations statute and established and operating not-for-profit for the benefit of members and the community (clause 4.3). A commercially owned venue with "club" in its name is not a club for award purposes.
• Night clubs are not clubs. A night club is commercial, so it falls under MA000119.
• A restaurant inside a hotel you operate is MA000009, not MA000119 — MA000119 clause 4.2 excludes a restaurant operated in, or in connection with, premises owned or operated by an employer covered by MA000009, MA000058 or MA000003.
• The fast food boundary is sit-down service, not the menu. A food-court outlet or takeaway counter is MA000003; a cafe with tables is MA000119.
• MA000009 clause 4.4(d) also excludes hospitals, theme parks, in-flight catering, local government bodies, and aged care catering other than catering provided for or within an aged care facility by an employer otherwise covered.

The qualification floor you have to apply in three of those four awards

This is the single classification rule that crosses award boundaries, so it is the one to learn first. A relevant AQF Certificate III or higher, used at work, sets a minimum classification of Level 4:

Three differences you have to respect when you apply it, because it is a pay entitlement and getting it wrong is an underpayment:

• MA000009 and MA000119 require the employee to make use of the skills and knowledge derived from the Certificate III competencies. It is not automatic on completion of a course — the test is what the work actually calls on.
• 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.

One point that surprises most new managers. Under MA000119, Level 4 is not a generic pay point — Schedule A defines it as "Food and beverage attendant grade 4 (tradesperson)" and "Cook grade 3 (tradesperson)", and the Level 4 rate is that award's standard rate, the benchmark the rest of the award is calculated from. So a staff member who completes a relevant Certificate III and uses it at work reaches a tradesperson grade without serving an apprenticeship. If you are deciding whether to support a team member's SIT30622, SIT30722 or SIT30821, that is the concrete consequence — for them and for your wage bill — and it is worth naming in the conversation rather than discovering at the next pay review.

Only the fast food award has no equivalent provision.

Then: the rest of the classification obligations, using MA000009 as the worked example

Under MA000009, clause 14 requires the employer to classify every employee in accordance with Schedule A. The structure is an Introductory level plus Levels 1 to 6 across five streams — food and beverage, kitchen, guest services, clerical and casino gaming. Two specifics that come up constantly on a roster:

• Introductory level is time-limited. Up to three months while the employee trains and is assessed for Level 1 competency, extendable once by mutual agreement by a further three months. Six months is the maximum. It is not a place to park people.
• Higher duties are mechanical, not discretionary. Under clause 22, two or more hours in a day at a higher classification attracts the higher rate for the whole day; less than two hours attracts it for the time worked only. Food and beverage attendants grades 2 and 3 are excluded from that provision.

Also: under clause 3.3 you must make the award and the National Employment Standards available to all employees, on a noticeboard or by accessible electronic means.

Those four are MA000009 provisions. Unlike the Level 4 floor, they do not carry across — MA000058, MA000119 and MA000003 each have their own Schedule A, with their own classification names and numbering, and their own clause numbering for higher duties, the award-access obligation and any equivalent of the Introductory level. So the floor travels; the level numbering above and below it does not. If you manage a registered club, a standalone restaurant or a fast food outlet, work from the award that actually covers your business. No rates are printed here; award rates re-set every 1 July, so use the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool.

On work health and safety

The primary duty of care cannot be transferred, and it does not vary by award. In Victoria the employer must provide and maintain a safe working environment so far as reasonably practicable — safe plant and systems of work, safe handling and storage of substances, adequate welfare facilities, and such information, instruction, training or supervision as is necessary for safe work — and must also ensure persons who are not employees are not exposed to risks, which is what reaches contractors and placement students. In New South Wales the duty holder is a PCBU and a work experience student is expressly a worker.

Consultation is a legal obligation with different standards in each state. Victoria requires you to consult employees and engaged contractors on hazard identification and assessment, control measures, welfare facilities, and changes to the workplace, plant, substances or work conduct — sharing information, giving a reasonable opportunity to express views, and taking those views into account, involving the Health and Safety Representative if there is one. New South Wales sets a higher bar: all workers, including apprentices, trainees, work experience students, volunteers and labour hire, must be able to contribute to the decision-making and be advised of the outcome in a timely manner. And NSW section 46 requires every person holding a duty for the same matter to consult, cooperate and coordinate — there is no general Victorian equivalent.

Incident records differ too. Victoria requires a written record of a notifiable incident within 48 hours, retained at least five years. New South Wales requires immediate notification by the fastest possible means, with written notice only if the regulator requests it within 48 hours. Both require site preservation until an inspector arrives or directs otherwise, with exceptions for assisting the injured, making the site safe or preventing a further incident.

The hazards you will be managing in a hospitality venue: glassware and broken glass; cuts and burns; heavy lifting and storing; repetitive physical work; slips, trips and falls; noise from extraction systems; hazardous cleaning chemicals; occupational violence, bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination; electrical equipment; cross contamination; and carbon dioxide gas. Controls follow the hierarchy — elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering, administrative, then PPE.

On food safety

If the venue has a kitchen that cooks, it is a category one business under Standard 3.2.2A, which means all three tools apply: food handler training, a Food Safety Supervisor, and substantiation records kept three months and accessible at the premises. The FSS must be appointed before a prescribed activity, must remain reasonably available, and must hold a certificate issued within the immediately preceding five years. In Victoria the same venue is generally a Class 2 premises under the Food Act 1984 and the FSS is required. Victoria permits RPL for the five-yearly FSS refresh; Queensland explicitly excludes it.

On gaming: a licensing gate a qualification does not remove

If the venue has gaming, the supervisory roles on that floor are not reachable by qualification alone. Three requirements sit on top of the training:

• A gaming licence is mandatory. A gaming supervisor — the material names pit boss and pit manager — supervises the operation of table games and works with dealers, and must hold an individual or occupational gaming licence. That is a regulator's decision, not a training outcome.
• Competence is game-specific. A gaming supervisor must achieve competence in the units covering the particular table games they supervise. A general hospitality supervision qualification does not cover the games.
• Responsible gambling comes first. All gaming supervisors and gaming workers must complete SITHGAM022 Provide responsible gambling services as a prerequisite requirement before working in gaming roles. It is a gate at the entrance to the sector, not a professional-development option once you are in it.

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 the Diploma core. So the gaming content is reachable at operational level and is not something the Diploma delivers by default.

One industrial consequence to carry into a gaming venue. MA000009 carries a separate casino gaming stream with its own rate table; MA000119 has none. A casino is an MA000009 premises, so the stream is available where you need it — but a restaurant or night club operating gaming machines is an MA000119 premises with no casino gaming classifications to work from, and the staff will have to be classified in that award's three streams instead. For the licensing steps in practice see how do I get my bar or gaming licence.

The migration point worth knowing before you plan

If part of the reason you are considering this qualification is a skilled migration pathway, read this carefully.

The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) Core Skills stream draws on the Core Skills Occupation List. Against that list:

The 141111 absence is a checked result, not a gap in research: the CSOL is a single numerically sorted list, and 141111 would sort between items 37 and 38, where it does not appear.

So linking a Diploma of Hospitality Management to skilled migration as a Cafe or Restaurant Manager would be misleading. Related management occupations — Hotel or Motel Manager, Licensed Club Manager, Accommodation and Hospitality Managers nec — are on the list, so the pathway is not closed; it is a question of which occupation the nomination is made in. Note the neat overlap with the award point above: the two listed occupations closest to this Diploma describe hotels (MA000009) and registered clubs (MA000058), while the absent one describes cafes and restaurants (MA000119) — and all three of those awards carry the Level 4 qualification floor, so the industrial position is consistent across them even where the migration position is not.

One limitation on the table above, stated plainly. For Chef (351311) and Cook (351411), presence on the CSOL is not the end of the question. Home Affairs applies caveats to both occupations in certain circumstances — fast food outlets, limited-service restaurants and business size are the examples the source material names — and those caveats were not retrieved for this page and could materially narrow the practical migration pathway. Treat the two rows above as list status only, not as a clear pathway, and verify the current caveats directly with the Department of Home Affairs before making any decision.

Note too that Cafe or Restaurant Manager and Hotel Manager both sit at ANZSCO skill level 2, indicatively an Associate Degree, Advanced Diploma or Diploma — so the Diploma is pitched at the right level for those occupations; it is the list, not the level, that is the constraint. And although the ABS superseded ANZSCO with OSCA in 2024, migration programs still run on ANZSCO codes. Get advice from a registered migration agent before committing.

Separately, Trades Recognition Australia assesses tradespersons and technicians only, so management occupations are assessed by other authorities. We operate a skills assessment service covering Chef and Cook, not any management occupation, so a Diploma of Hospitality Management graduate is outside that service's scope entirely. See skills assessment.

Where it sits against the alternatives

If you intend to stay in hospitality operations, SIT50422 is the direct route. If you may move between industries, the BSB qualifications travel better. See careers in hospitality management and five tips to help you get into hospitality management.

What comes after

AQF 5 is our ceiling — there is no Advanced Diploma on scope. A Diploma is commonly a basis for credit into a degree, but the amount of advanced standing is the university's decision. Ask them before you enrol, not after.

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 qualification 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.

• SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management
• SITHGAM022 Provide responsible gambling services
• SIT30622 Certificate III in Hospitality
• SITXGLC002 Identify and manage legal risks and comply with law
• SITXWHS007 Implement and monitor work health and safety practices
• 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)
• National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 — Standards 1 to 11