(photo by Tamara Steele)
The hard-hit restaurant industry getting a little help from the province in the form of training videos for new staff.
The Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick will oversee the development of the videos which will be produced separately in French and English.
Peter Stoddart of the Saint John Ale House said the videos will target areas where formal training may not exist.
“The idea behind the video series of training is to alleviate some of that pressure so when new staff are coming on especially if they have never worked in the industry will have a grasp of the concept of what it’s like to work in the industry. And then get into the details of each position,” Stoddart said.
Stoddart said the videos will be animated and produced by Hemmings House of Saint John.
He says animation will allow the material to be updated easily.
“We are still working on what that will actually look like but, it allows for a bit more of a fluid transition as the industry moves into a post-COVID world,” Stoddart said.
Carol Alderdice of the TIANB said restaurant owners need all the help they can get with the cost of doing business adding this free training will be one less thing to worry about.
The province will fund training videos to assist the restaurant industry. PETL Minister Trevor Holder making the announcement on the Market Square Boardwalk today. pic.twitter.com/Uj6QsKEoB5
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) July 16, 2020
Stoddart is co-owner of the Saint John Ale House, Barred Rock Chicken and Poutine and Toro Taco in Market Square and Smoking Pig BBQ takeout in Quispamsis.
He said they shut down all of their operations and laid off all their staff on March 16th, which he calls “the hardest day of his entire life in the restaurant business”.
“We have an incredible team here. We kept in contact, we kept working whether we got paid or not it didn’t matter. We opened the valley location first. It’s a takeout. We had a few more challenges here [because] it’s such a big area here, it’s a mall having access that sort of thing. On June 1st, we opened the Ale House. We brought back all of our staff and probably hired 36 more people on top of that,” Stoddart said.
Preliminary work on the videos will start this summer with a pilot program expected to roll out this fall.
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