How COVID has changed hygiene training in hospitality courses

Proper hygiene has been drilled into us since we were kids.

Wash your hands! Cover your mouth when you sneeze! Brush your teeth!

What you might not know is that these aren’t just important in your day-to-day life, but in the hospitality industry as well!

Hospitality courses like our commercial cookery courses in Melbourne aren’t all about learning how to handle a kitchen knife or use a commercial oven – they also include a lot of theoretical learning covering other areas – such as proper food hygiene.

Needless to say, this is something that has become even more important during 2020!

As a result of this, the Australian Hotels Association’s WA chapter has started a new initiative requiring the completion of a hygiene course for hospitality staff (and in particular, managerial staff) as part of their ongoing preparations of getting back in business.

And you can expect the other states and territories to follow suit with similar requirements in the near future!

Our hospitality courses in Melbourne and Brisbane already have extensive hygiene training baked into them – find out more about the training and what you’ll learn when you study hospitality with Academia…

Safety practises in the hospitality industry (and how our online hospitality courses help you)

In addition to practical cooking skills, our hospitality courses also cover essential theoretical knowledge such as proper food hygiene practices – something that’s important all of the time, and not just in the current situation.

And we aren’t just talking about maintaining counters, cash registers and other equipment used during operations – we’re also talking about essential food hygiene practices too:

Disinfecting cooking utensils and appliances
Cleaning kitchen tops and work spaces
Cleaning fridges and food storage areas

When it comes to cleaning in hospitality, there’s a proper way of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces – fail to follow it, and bacteria could linger, which in turn could lead to issues like food poisoning or worse.

As part of your course, you’ll learn about the risks associated with poor hygiene as well as the techniques required in the hospitality industry.

Equip yourself with an understanding of COVID-19

Specifically, look into how it’s spread, how long it persists on surfaces and what methods you can use to reduce transmission and target the most common vectors for transmission.

A solid working knowledge of how COVID-19 works can be a big help in creating your COVID management plan – something that many states are now requiring for hospitality businesses.

In particular, it’ll help you:

Devise a cleaning and disinfection system
Create an infection control plan
Choose effective cleaning products
Determine social distancing requirements in your venue space
Implement preventative measures to reduce risk

All of these are crucial measures in keeping your customers and staff safe – and they all start with a thorough understanding of hygiene practices and also knowledge of how the virus works.

Make sure that your team knows what to do

You can set the most comprehensive policy possible – at the end of the day however, it still falls on your team to turn it into action.

And that’s why it’s so important that you know how to not only create policy, but importantly, communicate it to your team!

It sounds relatively simple, but it’s one of those things that can be a lot more complex than most give it credit for, especially if you run a large hospitality business with loads of people employed.

As part of our hospitality management courses as well as our Certificate IV in Commercial Cookery, you’ll learn all there is about creating and enforcing policy in hospitality businesses and how to effectively communicate with your team.

Set up a record-keeping system

We aren’t just talking about records of who’s rostered on, either – it’s important that you keep track of everyone who comes into your hospitality business, including customers and delivery staff.

That means:

Recording contact details
The table they sat at
Date and time they were at your premises
The people they were in close contact with

And that might involve setting up a new system to keep all of these records.

There are many methods you can use to track all of these details depending on the size of your business.

Whatever type of system you settle on however, it’s important that you have one, and that you use it to get in contact with people should the worst happen.

Communicate

There are many changes hospitality businesses will need to implement to get through the coming weeks and months. It’s important that everyone, both staff and customers alike, know what these are.

In addition to just telling them, you can:

Put markers and signs to help maintain social distancing
Install transparent barriers in reception areas and workstations
Assign staff to maintain physical distancing
Rope off areas that aren’t in use
Close off tables that can’t be used

And finally, make sure you’ve got some sort of information panel up-front near the entrance that visitors can read upon their arrival.

Learn the basics of hygiene training with Academia

Even after everything settles, hygiene will always be an important part of the hospitality industry.

While many of these measures might be temporary, good hygiene and food safety aren’t one of them.

Luckily, that’s something that our hospitality courses in Melbourne and Sydney cover in-depth.

Academia Institute is a multi-award winning College in Melbourne and Brisbane that offers free or subsidised government-funded online hospitality courses to domestic students like you.

Our commercial cookery and hospitality management courses in Melbourne and Brisbane will prepare you for all of these hygiene and policy challenges, as well as the day-to-day challenges of keeping your hospitality business clean and your valued team and customers healthy.

Diploma of Hospitality Management (SIT50416)

Combining both theoretical and practical training, this course covers all of the necessary competencies in leadership, management and managerial responsibilities in the business.

In particular, this teaches you to implement work health and safety practises that you’ll need during any season. You’ll also learn how to comply with regulatory requirements as well as manage your COVID operational plan.

Find out more about the Diploma of Hospitality Management.

Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management (SIT60316)

The Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management takes your leadership, management, finance, and leadership skills to the next level., opening the door to top management positions within the hospitality industry.

Whether you’re aiming to climb the ladder or looking to build up your baseline knowledge before you start up your own business, the Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management can help you get there!

Find out more about the Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management.