A SWAN Valley wine tourism business says it is generally supportive of the changes to the WA Director of Liquor Licensing policies, which are well overdue.

Sandalford chief executive officer Grant Brinklow said the changes had been well considered by government, by industry, by operators and by organisations such as the Australian Hotels Association.

Included in the changes are that training institutions offering work placement in hospitality for people under 18 now only have to apply once a year for the Director of Liquor Licensing to approve a specific course.

Previously, every student on every course needed individual approval to be there.

This removes a significant administrative burden on schools and TAFEs and encourages more trainees into the industry.

Mr Brinklow said the industry needed trainees.

“Think about the Swan Valley these days, we retain our heritage and identity as one of the oldest and leading wine producing regions in Australia but increasingly the Swan Valley is about wine tourism,’’ he said.

“Wine tourism involves attracting visitors from Perth, intrastate, interstate and overseas to come to the Swan Valley for world-class unforgettable experiences – to do that it’s all about people.

“You’ve got to have the right people whether they’re front-of-house, restaurant and functions and waitstaff, chefs, sommeliers and wine educators so we need young people that see these areas – hospitality, tourism, leisure – as genuinely creating career paths for them.

“If you think about the Swan Valley of old it wasn’t like that but nowadays the region is flourishing.’’

The policy changes mean young people aged under 18 employed on a licensed premises can now collect glasses.

The old policy stated a juvenile could not take the glasses when clearing a table because that was seen as a component of serving alcohol whereas the new policy acknowledges it is a cleaning task.

Mr Brinklow said they had long been employing staff under the age of 18 to provide all sorts of support services to their operations in the Swan Valley.

“But we don’t have a beer garden and we’re not a pub so we don’t have people wandering around collecting glasses so that has no impact on us.

“But we’re generally supportive of the changes and the modernisation of some of these regulations.

“In fact I think they are well overdue.

“We are supportive, they are good initiatives.

“They’re sensible changes and they generally I think will have a positive impact and also open up opportunities for young people to consider careers in hospitality and tourism that they perhaps might not have considered previously.

“We’ve been a long time supporter of employing young people who are still in school with the support of their parents and guardians to work in back-of-house areas at Sandalford even though we’re a licensed premises.

“I don’t expect the changes that have been made recently will fundamentally impact or alter the way we go about doing what we do at Sandalford but I emphasise again they’re sensible changes and common sense.’’

He said they employed a lot of apprentices and the changes would fundamentally help organisations like them to just be able to get on and do things without being tied down to bureaucracy.

They employ young people from the region who don’t necessarily want to work at a fast food outlet but do want to be in an environment like Sandalford’s where they can learn skills that will help them develop careers over the long term.

“Obviously being under age they can’t serve alcohol, they can’t do that sort of thing but they can watch and learn, they can learn how to serve food all that sort of thing.

“We need to be careful and sensible about how we nurture these young people but that is what we do as a matter of course for all our staff.”

He thinks others in the Swan Valley wouldn’t be any different as they were all striving to provide world class experiences.