SIT30722 Certificate III in Hospitality (Restaurant Front of House)

We deliver this course through workplace (apprenticeship). Our official course page lists a duration of 12 months. 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

SIT30722 is a twenty-unit Certificate III from the SIT Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package — nine core units and eleven electives. It is the restaurant-specific hospitality qualification, and the distinguishing feature is what sits in its core: responsible service of alcohol, food safety hygiene and financial transaction processing are all mandatory, not optional.

That makes it the more prescribed of our two hospitality Certificate III qualifications, and the better fit for anyone heading into restaurant floor work. This page covers the structure, the core units, the supersession position, what the qualification is worth under the awards, and how it compares with SIT30622.

At a glance

This is one of 17 current qualifications on our scope, alongside 81 current skill sets and 579 current units — see about us.

The nine core units

This core is a fair description of a restaurant floor shift: seat and serve customers, handle alcohol lawfully, handle food hygienically, take payment, work safely, and help train the person next to you.

Two of the nine are worth drawing out. SITXFIN007 Process financial transactions is core here and nowhere else in our hospitality Certificate IIIs — which reflects that a restaurant floor role handles money directly. And SITXHRM007 Coach others in job skills appears at Certificate III level, so even the entry qualification expects you to be able to bring a colleague up to speed.

Why RSA in the core matters, and where it stops

SITHFAB021 Provide responsible service of alcohol is the unit that sits behind state liquor licensing requirements across Australia. Completing SIT30722 means completing it as part of the qualification, and the Statement of Attainment for that unit is the document most jurisdictions recognise.

This is worth being precise about. The RSA requirement is set by state liquor regulators, not by the training package, and the rules differ:

Current regulator guidance: NSW, VIC, SA, QLD, WA, NT, ACT, TAS.

An RSA Statement of Attainment is a national training record, but permission to serve alcohol depends on the destination’s rules. NSW permits eligible temporary interstate workers; permanent movers and security or RSA marshal roles must meet NSW training and competency-card requirements, using bridging where eligible. Victoria offers bridging to eligible interstate holders. SA applies approved-provider rules to training from 1 November 2020, with earlier training not required to be repeated solely for that change. QLD and WA require suitable national RSA evidence. Tasmania distinguishes staff from licence holders; the ACT and NT have local currency and refresher requirements. Check the regulator before your first shift. See RSA recognition by jurisdiction, NSW’s rules and SA’s rules.

Victoria also adds a second stage that catches almost everyone. Completing the unit with an LCV-approved provider gives you a Statement of Attainment — but the Victorian RSA certificate only exists after you also complete the LCV Learning Hub pre-training survey, the SHARPR module (Sexual Harassment and Assault: Recognise, Prevent and Respond) and a post-training survey. Two documents, two steps.

The SHARPR module is not confined to initial certification. LCV states that RSA training "including the RSA Refresher course" carries the module. And the refresher itself is not a licensee-only obligation: LCV requires every holder of a Victorian RSA certificate to complete the free RSA Refresher every three years to keep that certificate current. Licensees separately carry the training obligation in s 108AA of the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 — a distinct provision, not the same rule.

A further Victorian wrinkle worth knowing if you are enrolling there: LCV approves providers by delivery mode. It publishes one list of in-person providers, who may deliver in person or online using a live meeting platform, and a separate list of self-paced online providers. We appear on the in-person list, under one-day RSA course providers, and are not on the self-paced online list. The approved Victorian course also adds topics beyond SITHFAB021 — Victorian liquor laws, drink spiking, ID checks and preventing secondary supply, the use of prone restraint, harm minimisation, and compliance and enforcement.

And note that Queensland and Western Australia operate no approved-provider register for RSA at all, so any claim that a provider is "OLGR-approved" or "DLGSC-approved" describes a scheme that does not exist.

So holding SIT30722 gives you the nationally recognised unit, but whether that alone satisfies a particular state depends on that state's scheme. See RSA in Australia for the full matrix, or the pages for Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

What the food safety core unit does and does not cover

SITXFSA005 is the hygiene unit. It satisfies the food handler training obligation under Standard 3.2.2A of the Food Standards Code, which commenced 8 December 2023 — though note that obligation does not require accredited training, mandates no refresher period, and does not require the business to keep records of handler training. What the accredited unit buys is proof and portability.

It does not make you a Food Safety Supervisor. That role needs SITXFSA005 plus SITXFSA006 — together the SITSS00069 Food Safety Supervision skill set — and the certificate must have been issued within the preceding five years. SITXFSA006 sits in this qualification's elective list, so you can complete the pair inside the qualification if you choose it.

One honest limit: 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.

Structure and packaging rules

Twenty units must be completed: nine core and eleven elective. The electives are structured as:

• 9 units from the qualification's elective list
• 2 units from that list, elsewhere in the SIT Training Package, or any other current training package or accredited course

Eighteen of the twenty units are therefore drawn from defined lists. Only two 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 — that is a packaging rule, not advice, which is why an RTO will decline an incoherent set.

What the elective list covers

The list is built around restaurant service, and it is where you shape the qualification toward a particular floor role:

SIRXCEG008 deserves a note. Managing disrespectful, aggressive or abusive customers is a real and under-taught part of restaurant floor work, and it pairs naturally with the RSA core unit — which itself requires you to demonstrate asking two intoxicated customers to leave, one compliant and one refusing.

The service-period requirements are the real scheduling constraint

Several beverage and service electives require multiple service periods. Integrated assessment can cover multiple units when every requirement is met; the counts are not automatically additive:

A venue supporting a trainee across several of these needs the rostering to match. This is also why the qualification cannot be compressed arbitrarily, whatever a timetable claims.

Units with prerequisites

A number of the beverage electives carry prerequisites and must be sequenced: SITHFAB022 Clean and tidy bar areas, SITHFAB023 Operate a bar, SITHFAB025 Prepare and serve espresso coffee, SITHFAB027 Serve food and beverage, SITHFAB030 Prepare and serve cocktails, and SITHFAB031 Provide advice on beers, spirits and liqueurs.

SITHFAB025 requires SITXFSA005 Use hygienic practices for food safety, which is already core in this qualification — so that particular prerequisite is satisfied by the qualification itself. That is a genuine advantage of SIT30722 over SIT30622, where food safety is only an option in the compulsory Group A. Check individual unit requirements before finalising an elective set.

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.

SIT30722 is an AQF Certificate III, so it reaches that floor. And for a front-of-house worker the floor lands somewhere specific: under MA000119, Schedule A defines the Level 4 classification as Food and beverage attendant grade 4 (tradesperson), and the award's own "standard rate" is the Level 4 rate. The ladder continues — Level 5 is Food and beverage supervisor.

Since MA000119 is the award that covers standalone restaurants, this is the qualification whose natural workplace is also the award where the Level 4 outcome is most directly relevant. A relevant Certificate III used at work is an explicit route to a tradesperson grade.

Which award covers your restaurant

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

The boundary that matters most to this qualification: a restaurant inside a hotel or pub is MA000009, not MA000119 — MA000009 clause 4.2 covers restaurants operating in or in connection with premises it otherwise covers. 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 a night club is not a club for award purposes, being commercial — that is MA000119.

Three caveats. Under MA000009 and MA000119 the qualification must be relevant to your classification and 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.

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.

If you are doing it as a traineeship

Certificate III is the level at which most hospitality traineeships sit, and the award writes part of the arrangement:

• A full-time traineeship is 38 ordinary hours per week, of which 20 per cent must be approved training
• A trainee is entitled to be released from work without loss of pay for training and assessment specified in the training contract, and that time counts as time worked
• For apprentices, wage progression is competency-based. Once the employer receives written advice that the RTO has assessed the apprentice as meeting the requirements, they have 21 days to raise a disagreement; if none is raised, progression follows

The training plan maps units to those progression milestones, which makes it a wage instrument as much as an education document. Given the service-period requirements above, the sequencing in that plan directly determines when you can progress — read it rather than filing it.

The SIT30716 supersession

SIT30722 supersedes SIT30716 Certificate III in Hospitality (Restaurant Front of House), dated 9 June 2022, and the two are recorded as not equivalent.

Non-equivalence means holding SIT30716 is not automatically treated as holding SIT30722. Someone who needs the current qualification should expect a credit transfer and recognition of prior learning assessment rather than an automatic upgrade. Completed units frequently still count, but it is an assessment.

Those are two different processes and the names matter. Credit transfer, under Standard 1.7 of the Outcome Standards, recognises units you have 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. Moving from SIT30716 to SIT30722 typically uses both. 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.

Neither process, though, discharges a state liquor requirement. Credit-transferring SITHFAB021 moves the national unit; it does not by itself produce a Victorian RSA Certificate of Completion or a NSW competency card.

Note the equivalence flag is set qualification by qualification: SIT30821 and SIT40521 are equivalent to their predecessors; this one is not. Check rather than assume.

SIT30716 is superseded and is not on our scope of registration. Check any advertised code on training.gov.au before enrolling.

SIT30722 or SIT30622: which Certificate III?

SIT30722 is five units longer and considerably more prescribed. Choose it if the intended job is restaurant floor work, or if you want RSA and food safety embedded in the qualification rather than bolted on.

SIT30622 is broader and shorter. Choose it if you want flexibility about where you work — cafe, bar, accommodation, functions — and would rather select beverage or food units as electives.

Both sit at AQF 3, so both engage the Level 4 classification floor described above.

Or take a skill set instead

If twenty units is more than your situation needs, we hold 81 current skill sets, 22 of them in the SIT hospitality package, and most are not advertised as courses. Several overlap with this qualification: SITSS00071 Responsible service of alcohol, SITSS00070 Hospitality Compliance, SITSS00078 Customer Service, SITSS00069 Food Safety Supervision, SITSS00080 Espresso Machine Operation, SITSS00075 Beverage Advice, SITSS00094 Sommelier.

Units completed in a skill set credit-transfer into the full qualification later, so starting with one is not a detour. The full list is on all courses.

Entry requirements

The training package sets no prerequisite qualification for entry.

We apply our own enrolment conditions:

• Learners must be 16 years of age or over at course commencement
• Learners under 17 need documentation relating to school attendance exemption or transition from school, depending on whether Year 10 is complete
• Language, literacy and numeracy skills at or around Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) Level 3
• Apprenticeship and traineeship learners must be employed under a training contract and referred by their employer

Note that minimum age for enrolment is a separate question from minimum age for serving alcohol, which is set by each state's liquor legislation and differs between jurisdictions. Queensland sets no minimum age under its Liquor Act 1992; Western Australia penalises a licensee who employs a juvenile to sell, supply or serve alcohol. Victoria draws the line between the two questions explicitly: an under-18 may complete RSA training there, but must be 18 to serve.

All learners complete a pre-training review, required under Standard 2.2. Raise credit transfer and RPL there, before enrolling — afterwards is harder. If you already hold an RSA or a food safety unit from another provider, that is credit transfer and should not require reassessment.

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.

Duration, licensing and the certificate

Twenty units is the largest of our two hospitality Certificate III qualifications, so three questions come up constantly: how long it should take, whether the qualification itself is a licence, and when the certificate arrives.

Volume of learning: one to two years

The Australian Qualifications Framework sets an indicative volume of learning for a Certificate III of one to two years, and that figure is independent of delivery mode — it is not a count of classroom hours, and it applies equally to campus, workplace, online and traineeship delivery. The governing test is that the volume of learning must be sufficient for graduates to achieve the learning outcomes of the qualification.

For SIT30722 the service-period requirements set out above make that test unusually concrete. Twelve service periods for SITHFAB034, five including a peak for SITHFAB027, three for SITHFAB030: those are calendar constraints, not classroom ones, and they cannot be collapsed by studying harder.

ASQA names two compliance risks that bear directly on this. The first is accelerating or shortening training without allowing students sufficient time for skill development and knowledge application. The second is marketing unrealistically short courses, which either compromises the integrity of the training product or leaves the student paying for an extension. An advertised duration for twenty units that sits well below the AQF band is a question to ask, not a bargain to take.

The qualification is not a licence — but one of its core units is licensing-linked

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this qualification at the time of publication. SIT30722 is a qualification, not a permit. No liquor, gaming or food regulator issues, approves or endorses the qualification as a whole, and completing it does not license you to do anything.

The skills it contains must still be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and state or territory legislation, Australian standards and industry codes of practice — those obligations sit on the venue and the worker whatever the certificate says.

The distinction is sharper here than on most qualifications, because two licensing-linked units are core. SITHFAB021 Provide responsible service of alcohol is the unit behind state liquor requirements, and SITXFSA005 Use hygienic practices for food safety speaks to the food handler training obligation under the Food Standards Code. In both cases it is the unit, not the qualification, that carries the regulatory weight, and in the RSA case the recognising authority is each state or territory liquor regulator rather than the training package — which is exactly why the jurisdiction table earlier on this page exists. Holding the qualification is not the same thing as holding a current certificate that a particular regulator will accept.

When the certificate is issued, and what is on it

An RTO must not issue AQF certification documentation unless the person has been assessed as meeting the requirements of the training product. Once that assessment is complete, it must issue within 30 calendar days of completion of the assessment, provided the student has completed the qualification — or the units they subsequently withdrew from — and has paid all agreed fees. The thirty days runs from the assessment, not from the end of a term or the next graduation date.

The testamur must carry the name, registration code and logo of the issuing organisation; 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 Australian Qualifications Framework. Where they apply it also carries the industry descriptor, an occupational or functional stream title in brackets, an "Achieved through Australian Apprenticeship arrangements" statement, or a language notation.

One thing must not appear. The Unique Student Identifier must not be printed on a qualification or a statement of attainment. A certificate arriving with a USI on its face is a defective document.

Partial completion produces a statement of attainment, which must list the full title and national code of each unit achieved and identify the qualification those units form part of. That is the document that carries SITHFAB021 or SITXFSA005 on its own, which is why it matters to this qualification more than to most.

And the record keeps. An RTO must retain records of all AQF certification documentation for thirty years — which is why a replacement is obtainable decades later, and why a document issued under one of our earlier trading names is still verifiable against RTO 3722.

Delivery and funding

SIT30722 is on our national scope as deliver and assess and, according to our current delivery information, is available in all states and territories: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA. That is a wider reach than several other qualifications on the scope — commercial cookery is SA, TAS, VIC and WA; kitchen management is VIC and WA; both diplomas are Victoria only.

Be aware that scope of registration and state liquor approval are different things. Registration lets us deliver and assess SITHFAB021 anywhere in Australia; it does not make the resulting certificate sufficient for a liquor regulator that runs its own provider scheme. We hold Liquor Control Victoria approval — on LCV's in-person provider list — and do not hold Liquor & Gaming NSW approval, so we cannot produce a NSW competency card.

Funding differs by state. We hold a Victorian Skills First VET Funding Contract as TOID 3722, and in Victoria the provider determines a learner's subsidy eligibility and holds the evidence for that determination. Delivery in New South Wales is fee-for-service and unsubsidised. Subsidised is not free — a student contribution generally applies, sometimes at a concession rate. Confirm the current fee directly.

Where it leads

The usual progression is SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality, which adds rostering, budget management, conflict management and work health and safety supervision, and then SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management at AQF 5, which is our ceiling and is Victoria only.

For someone who may want out of hospitality hours later, BSB40520 Certificate IV in Leadership and Management is the more portable next step at 12 units.

SIT30722 does not create a migration pathway. Through Trades Recognition Australia only Chef (ANZSCO 351311) and Cook (351411) are assessable in this field, and Cafe or Restaurant Manager is not on the Core Skills Occupation List. See skills assessment.

About us

We are Complete Hospitality Training, RTO 3722, CRICOS 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 and all courses.

SIT30722 is on our national scope of registration as deliver and assess and, according to our current delivery information, is available in all states and territories. Completing it produces a nationally recognised qualification; partial completion produces a Statement of Attainment for the units achieved.

On the liquor side specifically: we appear on Liquor Control Victoria's in-person approved RSA course provider list, under one-day RSA course providers, and are not on LCV's separate self-paced online list. We are not on the Liquor & Gaming NSW approved training provider list.

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. Assessment wording clarified on 2 October 2026. SIT implementation guide, section 6.3.