Hobart chef returns to learning with Fee Free TAFE
Published on: 10 Oct 2024
Shayne Jupp – Juppy to his friends – has been around the Tasmanian hospitality scene for 3 decades. Recently, thanks to Fee Free TAFE, he returned to TasTAFE to complete his Certificate III in Hospitality.
Originally from Penguin, Juppy got his start at Wellers Inn in Burnie. After completing his Certificate I and II in in Hospitality at Drysdale in the North West, he headed south in 1997 to manage legendary Hobart restaurant Rockefellers.
From there, Juppy balanced front-of-house service and kitchen efficiency at a “cacophony of venues”, as he puts it: Gondwana in Battery Point; the Lewisham Tavern; Smolt in Salamanca Square; Raincheck Lounge in North Hobart; Pumphouse Point at Lake St Clair; Post Street Social on the Hobart waterfront; Clemens Hill winery cellar door in Richmond; Blue Eye in Battery Point…
“My last decade has been filled with two-year contracts where I would go into a venue, understand the difficulties they were having, then put 24 months into remedying those issues,” Juppy said. “People were looking for a skillset that I seemed to have.”
After completing his Certificate IV in Training and Assessment during the pandemic, Juppy set his sights on teaching: “I wanted to reinvigorate my love for the industry and be able to spruik the benefits of a life in food,” he said.
But in order to teach hospitality skills, Juppy needed his Certificate III in Hospitality.
Enter Fee Free TAFE – a joint initiative of the Australian and Tasmanian Governments, providing tuition-free training places to students wanting to train, retrain or upskill.
Rachel Holland, Head of Centre – Tourism, Land & Services at TasTAFE, guided Juppy into it.
“It was such a professional process,” Juppy said. “They identified my strengths and made it simple for me to complete. And it really lit a fire under me, to remember how fortunate I've been to have a life in hospitality.
“The best thing about learning at TasTAFE was the flexibility in being self-paced, but guided at every step of the way. The leaders were available and communicated in a timely fashion, in terms that a mature-age student like me could understand.
“If I did have to pay fees, TAFE would have been on the backburner: I've got a young family and I've got bills… So I’m super grateful to have been able to do it, literally, fee-free.”