A new community kitchen, which assists in boosting the number of skilled hospitality workers while also helping disadvantaged members of the community, was opened today by Victorian Premier John Brumby.The kitchen – an initiative of Youth Projects Incorporated, a not-for-profit body funded by Victorian, Commonwealth and local government grants – will provide training opportunities in hospitality and health promotion while also providing food for disadvantaged people in the local community.

Mr Brumby considers the initiative as a positive step toward the aims of both the Victorian Government’s Skills Reform work and the ongoing strategy to reduce disadvantage across the state, ‘A Fairer Victoria’. “This Government is committed to addressing a growing skills shortage and also to reducing disadvantage, and this wonderful program is just the sort of initiative that’s needed to help,” he claimed. “By helping those unable to access conventional training opportunities, this initiative will reach out and retrain those who have previously been denied the chance to make our state smarter and to enhance their own lives.

“It is community organisations like Youth Projects Incorporated that will benefit under our proposed upgrades to Victoria’s training sector, where we would make it easier for Victorians to re-train or boost their existing qualifications,” Mr Brumby added. “And by doing so, we’ll also reduce disadvantage by allowing more Victorians to access these excellent schemes which can also be used to promote healthy living choices and thus help tackle the looming obesity and diabetes epidemics.”

Mr Brumby said the future of Victoria’s prosperity relied, to a great degree, on skills reforms. “Without an adequately skilled workforce, Victoria will not be able to compete in the industries and global economies of the future,” he said. “The shortage of skills is creating a barrier to economic growth, holding business back, and limiting employment opportunities for young people.”

“… we need to act now to ensure we have a more dynamic and responsive training system that meets the needs of the 21st Century,” Mr Brumby concluded.

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