SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management: culinary stream

We deliver this course through classroom with practical placement. Our official course page lists a duration of 24 months (102 weeks). These are our delivery arrangements for this course; the qualification and unit comparisons below explain the national requirements. Check the official course page for current intake and enrolment details.

View our official course details and booking information. Course details checked 2 October 2026.

Course background and related accredited requirements

SIT50422 is a twenty-eight-unit Diploma from the SIT Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package — eleven core units and seventeen electives, CRICOS-registered under code 115534C.

This page covers the culinary stream, and it carries one fact that matters more than anything else on the page for international students: this is the only culinary route at Complete Hospitality Training that a student visa holder can enrol in.

A stream is not a separate qualification

The culinary stream and the hotel management stream are the same qualification: same national code SIT50422, same eleven core units, same twenty-eight-unit total, and the same certificate. The testamur does not say "culinary".

What differs is the elective configuration — chiefly which eleven units are taken from Group C. That changes what you study and what you can do afterwards, but not the award itself.

At a glance

AQF 5 is our ceiling — there is no Advanced Diploma on the scope. This is one of 17 current qualifications, alongside 81 current skill sets and 579 current units; see about us.

Who the qualification is written for

Worth reading before the culinary framing, because it is the register's own description and it is a management one. The training package describes graduates as highly skilled senior operators who combine a broad range of hospitality skills with managerial skills and sound industry knowledge to coordinate hospitality operations. They operate independently, are responsible for others, and make a range of operational business decisions. The pathway it names is to a departmental or small business manager.

The employers the package names are restaurants, hotels and motels, catering operations, clubs and pubs, and cafes and coffee shops, and it expressly contemplates multiskilling as well as targeted skills in accommodation services, cookery, food and beverage, and gaming. Cookery appears in that list as one of four possible specialisations, which is precisely the point of this page: the culinary stream is the configuration that takes the cookery option, not a separate cookery award.

The only CRICOS culinary route

This is worth setting out properly, because it is a genuine gap in the alternatives rather than a marketing claim.

We hold two dedicated cookery qualifications, and neither is CRICOS-registered:

An international student on a student visa may only enrol in a CRICOS-registered course at a CRICOS-registered provider. That requirement comes from the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 and the National Code, not from us.

So for an international student who wants culinary training with us, SIT50422 with a culinary elective configuration is the available path. It is a hospitality management diploma with kitchen-oriented electives rather than a cookery qualification, and it is worth being clear-eyed about that difference: the core is management, not cookery.

Anyone whose goal is a trade cookery qualification specifically, rather than a management diploma, should compare this against Certificate III in Commercial Cookery at a CRICOS-registered provider elsewhere.

The eleven core units

Identical to the hotel management stream.

Note what is not here: no cookery units are core. SITXGLC002 Identify and manage legal risks and comply with law is the unit that most clearly marks this as a management award — for a kitchen it reaches food safety, work health and safety, and employment obligations.

The culinary character of the qualification comes entirely from the electives.

What the management core gives a chef

If you already cook, this is the part worth reading, because the core is what you are actually buying:

On food safety specifically: Standard 3.2.2A requires category one and two businesses to have trained food handlers and a Food Safety Supervisor whose certificate was issued within the preceding five years. Category one — any kitchen that processes unpackaged potentially hazardous food into food that is both potentially hazardous and ready to eat, which is any kitchen that cooks — also carries the substantiation records tool: records across eight practice areas, kept three months, accessible at the premises.

One honest limit for anyone planning to work interstate: in New South Wales the Food Safety Supervisor requirement is met by a separate state-issued certificate from a provider approved by the NSW Food Authority under Food Act 2003 s 106H, and we are not on that list. See Food Safety Supervisor.

Packaging rules

Twenty-eight units must be completed: eleven core and seventeen elective.

• 1 unit from Group A — Hygiene
• 1 unit from Group B — Operations
• 11 units from Group C — Hospitality
• 4 units from Group C, Group D, elsewhere in the SIT Training Package, or any other current training package or accredited course

Only four of the twenty-eight are genuinely open. Elective selection must be guided by the job outcome sought, local industry requirements and the complexity of skills appropriate to the AQF level, and every elective must contribute to a valid, industry-supported vocational outcome — packaging rules, not advice.

Group A contains exactly two units: SITHIND005 Use hygienic practices for hospitality service and SITXFSA005 Use hygienic practices for food safety. For a culinary configuration, SITXFSA005 is the obvious choice: it satisfies the food handler obligation and is the prerequisite behind most practical cookery units. Add SITXFSA006 and you complete the SITSS00069 Food Safety Supervision unit pair inside the qualification.

Group B is where a culinary configuration first declares itself, and it is a three-unit group — one compulsory choice from SITHCCC043 Work effectively as a cook, SITHIND008 Work effectively in hospitality service, and SITHKOP013 Plan cooking operations. A culinary configuration takes SITHCCC043 or SITHKOP013; a front-of-house one takes SITHIND008. One unit, chosen from three, is the clearest structural difference between the two streams. Note that both cookery options in this group are marked as carrying prerequisites in the training package, which is the first place sequencing bites.

Group C is Hospitality, the largest group and the source of eleven of your seventeen electives. It spans accommodation services, client and customer service, commercial cookery, food and beverage, food safety and gaming units. A culinary configuration draws its eleven from the commercial cookery and food safety parts of that range — planning cooking operations, designing and costing menus, developing recipes for special dietary requirements, food safety program development — which are the same units that form the core of SIT40521 Certificate IV in Kitchen Management. Group D supplies part of the flexible four, alongside the wider SIT package and any other current training package or accredited course.

Many cookery units carry prerequisites and must be sequenced. This matters more in a culinary configuration than a hotel management one, because the practical cookery units generally require food safety units first. Raise sequencing at enrolment rather than mid-course — a prerequisite discovered late can delay completion by a whole delivery cycle.

How this compares with SIT40521 on cookery content

Worth being direct, because it is the comparison a domestic chef is actually making:

SIT40521 is a larger qualification than the Diploma — 33 units against 28 — with thirteen practical cookery units locked into its core. SIT50422 is a higher AQF level with no compulsory cookery at all.

So the honest position: if you want assessed practical cookery breadth, SIT40521 delivers more of it, and at Certificate III level SIT30821 locks in twenty core units including seafood, poultry, meat, pastry and special dietary work. If you want a management credential at AQF 5 with a kitchen orientation, or if you are on a student visa and therefore cannot access either cookery qualification, this is the route.

Duration, licensing and the certificate

Three facts set outside any provider's control.

Entry requirements: none. The training package sets no entry requirements for SIT50422 — no prerequisite qualification and no prior experience, even at AQF 5, and even for a culinary configuration. That is worth knowing both ways: it means a career-changer is not locked out, and it means the qualification does not assume you can already cook. If you cannot, the elective sequencing conversation matters a great deal. Our own enrolment conditions are separate and are set out below.

No licence attaches to the qualification. At the time of publication, no occupational licensing, certification or specific legislative requirements apply to SIT50422, and the skills in it must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and state or territory legislation, Australian standards and industry codes of practice. On a culinary page that needs stating plainly: the food safety obligations under the Food Standards Code and state food law sit on the business, not on the individual, and none of the liquor licence, food business registration or Food Safety Supervisor certificate is conferred by the testamur.

Duration is anchored by the AQF. The volume of learning for a Diploma is 1 to 2 years; Certificate II is 0.5 to 1 year, Certificate III 1 to 2 years and Certificate IV 0.5 to 2 years. Note the consequence for the comparison above — SIT40521 at Certificate IV sits in a 0.5 to 2 year band while this Diploma sits in a 1 to 2 year band, so the higher AQF level carries a higher floor on learning volume even though it is five units smaller. The volume must be sufficient for graduates to achieve the learning outcomes, and ASQA names both "accelerating or shortening training without allowing students sufficient time for skill development and knowledge application" and "marketing unrealistically short courses" as compliance risks in their own right.

Certification has a deadline. Once you are assessed as competent, the RTO must issue your AQF certification documentation within 30 calendar days of completion of the assessment, provided you have completed the qualification (or the units you later withdrew from) and paid all agreed fees. The testamur must carry the issuing organisation's name, registration code and logo, the code and title of the qualification, the Nationally Recognised Training logo used in accordance with the NRT Logo Conditions of Use, the signature of an authorised individual, a seal, corporate identifier or unique watermark, and a statement recognising the qualification within the AQF. Your USI must not be printed on it, and the RTO must retain records of all AQF certification documentation for thirty years, which is why a replacement copy is obtainable decades later.

Culinary or hotel management?

Choose the culinary configuration if the intended role runs a kitchen, or if you are an international student seeking a culinary pathway with us.

Choose the hotel management configuration if the intended role runs a venue, floor, front office or function operation.

Because your transcript lists the units you completed rather than a stream name, the elective set is what an employer or a skills assessor actually reads. Choose it for the job you want, not for the label.

What the qualification is worth under the award

Three of the four awards covering hospitality premises carry the same provision. An employee has the appropriate level of training if they have completed a relevant qualification or the relevant units of competency — and the note attached to that definition sets a floor:

The minimum classification level for an employee who has completed AQF Certificate III or higher qualifications relevant to the classification in which they are employed and who makes use of skills and knowledge derived from Certificate III competencies relevant to the work undertaken is Level 4.

SIT50422 is AQF 5, so it comfortably clears the Certificate III threshold. For kitchen work the classification names are worth knowing: under MA000119, Schedule A defines Level 4 as Cook grade 3 (tradesperson), Level 5 as Cook grade 4 (tradesperson) and Level 6 as Cook grade 5 (tradesperson) — and the award's own "standard rate" is the Level 4 rate.

One caveat specific to this qualification, and it is an honest one. The provision keys to a qualification relevant to the classification in which you are employed. A management diploma with kitchen electives is squarely relevant to a kitchen management role. Whether it is the strongest evidence for a Cook grade classification specifically is a different question from whether a cookery qualification would be — because the core here is management. If your objective is the cook trade grades rather than a management classification, a dedicated cookery qualification is more directly on point.

Which award covers the kitchen

Decided by the premises, not the job title. Each award covers its industry "to the exclusion of any other modern award".

Two boundaries commonly got wrong: a registered club is not MA000009 — clause 4.4(d)(i) expressly excludes clubs registered under state or territory legislation, and clause 4.3 of MA000058 requires the club to be registered under a liquor, gaming, associations or corporations statute and to operate not-for-profit for its members. And a night club is not a club for award purposes, being commercial: MA000119. Note too that a contract caterer is MA000009, not MA000119.

Three caveats on the floor. Under MA000009 and MA000119 you must make use of the skills; it is not automatic on completion. MA000058 omits the "or higher" and lets the Fair Work Commission require the employee to demonstrate they utilise the skills. Disputes go to clause 40 of MA000009, clause 34 of MA000119, or referral to the Commission under MA000058.

One practical point this qualification trains you to handle: under MA000009 clause 3.3 the employer must make copies of the award and the National Employment Standards available to all employees, on a noticeboard or by accessible electronic means.

No pay rates are published here. Award rates re-set every 1 July, so use the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool with your award code.

Migration: the honest picture

This needs care, because it is the most consequential misunderstanding available on a culinary page aimed partly at international students.

Cookery is one of the few hospitality areas with a migration pathway at all. Our TRA appointment covers Chef (ANZSCO 351311) and Cook (ANZSCO 351411) under the TSS Skills Assessment Program and the Offshore Skills Assessment Program. As at 1 September 2026 Chef is item 386 and Cook item 387 on the Core Skills Occupation List. By contrast Cafe or Restaurant Manager, ANZSCO 141111, is not on the Core Skills Occupation List, and Our TRA appointment does not cover hospitality-management occupations, so it does not extend to graduates of this Diploma seeking assessment in a management capacity.

But three things follow, and all cut against an easy assumption:

1. A TRA skills assessment is a separate process from holding a qualification. It assesses your occupation against evidence of skills and employment. Completing this Diploma does not produce one, and no course does. TRA accepts SIT40521 for Chef, and SIT30821 or SIT40521 for Cook — note that this Diploma is not among the qualifications TRA names for either occupation.
2. This Diploma's core is management, not cookery. For a Chef or Cook assessment the evidence that matters is cookery skill and relevant employment, and the indicative experience requirements are substantial: Chef sits at ANZSCO skill level 2 and Cook at skill level 3, with a minimum of three years relevant full-time paid work with formal training or five years without. Chefs, Fast Food Cooks and Kitchenhands are excluded from the Cook unit group, and Cooks, Fast Food Cooks and Kitchenhands from the Chef unit group, so the job title on a reference matters.
3. Home Affairs applies caveats to Chef and Cook in certain circumstances, relating to matters such as fast food outlets, limited-service restaurants and business size. Those caveats could not be verified for this page and could materially narrow the practical pathway. Do not treat the occupations being listed as a clear route.

So if a migration outcome in the cookery occupations is your objective, take advice from a registered migration agent before choosing a course, and understand the difference between a qualification and a skills assessment. See skills assessment. We are a training provider and a TRA-appointed assessor; we are not a migration adviser.

The SIT50416 supersession

SIT50422 supersedes SIT50416 Diploma of Hospitality Management, dated 9 June 2022, and the two are recorded as not equivalent. Holding SIT50416 is not automatically treated as holding SIT50422; a credit transfer and recognition of prior learning assessment applies.

Those are two different processes. Credit transfer, under Standard 1.7 of the Outcome Standards, recognises units already completed at any RTO — your Statement of Attainment is the evidence and there is no reassessment. Recognition of prior learning, under Standard 1.6, assesses prior skills, learning and experience against the unit's own evidence requirements. A chef moving into this qualification will usually use both. Two points from our own policy: credit transfer attracts no fee to the student, and RPL is not available through government funding — it is available fee-for-service. We first verify the evidence and equivalence, check that the units fit your training product, and check for licensing or regulatory restrictions before granting credit. See ASQA’s credit-transfer guidance.

The equivalence flag is set qualification by qualification: SIT30821 and SIT40521 are equivalent to their predecessors; this one is not.

SIT50416 is superseded and is not on our scope. Check any advertised code on training.gov.au.

For international students

SIT50422 is registered on CRICOS as course code 115534C under provider code 04242E, delivered at the Melbourne campus, where our CRICOS registration carries a capacity of 300 international students across its three registered courses.

Three National Code points worth knowing before signing anything. Under Standard 3, the written agreement must be in place before or at the same time as the first fee is taken — including non-tuition fees — and must set out course details, entry prerequisites, all tuition and non-tuition fees, whether more than 50 per cent of tuition may be taken before commencement, refund provisions including the role of the Tuition Protection Service, and the complaints and appeals process. Under Standard 7, a provider must not knowingly enrol a student transferring from another provider before that student has completed six months of their principal course, subject to four defined exceptions. And under Standard 8.5 the provider must tell you, before the course commences, what satisfactory course progress and, where applicable, attendance require in each study period. See the visa checklist.

Delivery: Victoria only

Our scope for SIT50422 covers Victoria alone, so an international student enrolling in this course will study in Melbourne. An RTO may only deliver and assess within its registered scope.

For context: SIT40422 is available in all eight states and territories, commercial cookery in SA, TAS, VIC and WA, and kitchen management in VIC and WA.

Funding differs by cohort. We hold a Victorian Skills First VET Funding Contract as TOID 3722, and in Victoria the provider determines subsidy eligibility and holds the evidence for that determination. International students are fee-paying. Subsidised is not free — a student contribution generally applies, and where a concession applies the concession fee is capped at no more than 20 per cent of the standard tuition fee, a mandatory reduction rather than a discretionary discount. Confirm the current fee directly.

Two Skills First constraints worth knowing if you are a domestic learner: eligibility requires being an Australian citizen, permanent visa holder or New Zealand citizen and undertaking all training while physically present in Victoria or a listed border-region postcode; and the program limits a student to two subsidised AQF qualifications per calendar year, two skill sets per calendar year and two subsidised programs at the same time, counted on commencement rather than completion.

Entry requirements

The training package sets no entry requirements for SIT50422 — no prerequisite qualification and no prior experience.

We apply our own enrolment conditions: minimum age 16, documentation for learners under 17 relating to school attendance, language, literacy and numeracy at or around ACSF Level 3, and for apprentices and trainees, employment under a training contract with employer referral.

International students are additionally subject to English language and genuine student requirements set by the Department of Home Affairs rather than by us.

All learners complete a pre-training review, required under Standard 2.2 of the Outcome Standards for RTOs — the standard obliges the RTO to review, before enrolment, a prospective student's skills and competencies including language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy, and individual requirements including physical skills, prior experience and any unit prerequisites, then advise whether the training product suits them. The physical-skills limb is not a formality in a kitchen configuration. Cite the instrument by name: the National Code 2018 has a different Standard 2.2, about assessing an overseas student's English and qualifications for entry.

For a culinary configuration this is the right moment to map elective sequencing and any recognition of prior learning from previous kitchen experience — on a twenty-eight-unit qualification an experienced chef may already demonstrate a substantial share.

For nationally recognised training, a Unique Student Identifier (USI) is generally required before a qualification or Statement of Attainment can be issued, unless an applicable exemption applies. See the official USI exemption guidance. A USI is free at usi.gov.au. If you already have one, recover it rather than creating another.

You are also entitled, before enrolling or before fees become payable, to a full schedule of fees including prepaid fees, the code and title, duration, modes of delivery, location, dates, whether licensing requirements apply, any third-party arrangements, the support services available, any obligation to acquire materials or equipment or undertake and travel to a placement, any cost of obtaining a USI or withdrawing, and how to lodge an enquiry and how long to expect to wait for an answer. On a culinary configuration the materials-and-equipment item is worth asking about specifically.

What you receive

On completion, a qualification testamur for SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management, recorded against your USI. It does not name a stream.

On partial completion, a Statement of Attainment for the units achieved, carrying the full title and national code of each unit and identifying the qualification those units form part of. It is permanent on your transcript and credit-transferable at any Australian RTO.

A Diploma is also commonly a basis for credit into a degree, though how much advanced standing you receive is the university's decision.

About us

We are Complete Hospitality Training, RTO 3722, CRICOS provider code 04242E, 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. See about us, all courses and skills assessment.

SIT50422 is on our scope of registration as deliver and assess in Victoria, and is CRICOS-registered as 115534C. Completing it produces a nationally recognised qualification; partial completion produces a Statement of Attainment for the units achieved.

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.