Hotel Etico, the first social enterprise hotel in Australia training and employing young people with disability, recently graduated its first cohort of employees. All six graduates have been placed in award-wage paying employment at some of NSW’s most renowned hotels and restaurants.
Based in the Blue Mountains, Hotel Etico is staffed by hospitality trainees with disability and industry professionals. Its unique business model uses an integrated program of on-the-job vocational training, coaching in capacity building and carer support to facilitate a pathway to employment and improved independent living and social skills.
People with disability are not always set up for success in new jobs, and the reasons are multi-faceted, Hotel Etico founder Andrea Comastri said. “This why we decided to extend our program by 12 months and establish partnerships that ensured employers were supported in providing inclusive and effective workplaces. Simultaneously, employees with disability will have support to an effective onboarding experience that sets them up for long-term success.”
After the success of its first cohort, the program has kicked off its second round, with 12 people with disability undertaking a 12-month training program to learn a range of skills including housekeeping, reception, restaurant, bar and kitchen, as well as independent living skills through the Academy of Independence, an on-site apartment where they live and put in practice their new skills.
Comastri said one of the biggest issues for people with disability is that unemployment rates have hardly changed in the last 20 years.
“We need more inclusive workplaces and greater efforts from employers to train and encourage people with disability to join our workforces, but it can’t stop there,” he said. “Too often, people with disability are put in jobs that end up being short-term because they aren’t receiving the right support or have experienced discrimination in their workplace. There needs to be an equal focus on job placements and job success.”
Caption: Hotel Etico graduates