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Proud Sponsors of Irish Restaurant Awards 2023

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We are delighted to announce that we are proud sponsors of this year’s Irish Restaurant Awards. This is the 14th year of the Awards and we look forward to celebrating the best of Irish Hospitality in 2023.

The Network Manager, Naimh O’Malley, has attended the awards launch on Thursday 12th January  in Locks Restaurant, Dublin.

Nominations for this years awards can now be made via https://www.irishtimes.com/sponsored/restaurant-awards-ireland from 12 noon, Thursday 12th until 12 noon, Thursday 26th January 2023.

As with previous years the Irish Restaurant Awards process begins with an online public vote hosted via the Irish Times. This is followed by the judging process of National Experts, followed by Regional Events in the four provinces at which County Winners will be announced, a Dublin Shortlist and culminating in the All-Ireland Irish Restaurant Final.

Paul Lenehan, President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland commented at the Launch; “The aim of the Irish Restaurant Awards is to recognize excellence within the Irish hospitality industry. These awards are a celebration and acknowledgement of the hard work put in by restaurateurs and hospitality businesses and their talented staff year-round. Our Awards seek to highlight the overall high standards, passion & innovation present within Ireland’s food scene to ultimately celebrate the best of hospitality throughout the Island of Ireland”.

This year, there are 21 categories in which the general public can nominate. These categories are made up of 17 Main Award categories and 4 National Award categories and there are 2 brand-new award categories this year– Innovator of the Year and Learning & Development. We are delighted to be sponsoring the brand new Learning & Development category. We feel that many hospitality businesses excel in this area and have contributed to their staffs life long development and therefore, should be recognised for their efforts. Our Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet stand will be present at each regional event where we invite you to discuss your training and development needs with us and discuss how we can assist your business.

For more information on the Irish Restaurant Awards please visit: https://irishrestaurantawards.com/

Wishing the best of luck to all nominees in the coming weeks!

The Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet Team.




Network Learning & Development Strategy 2023 – 2025

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Network Strategy 2023 – 2025

The Restaurant & Hospitality Skillnet are in the process of planning our 2023 – 2025 network strategy for submission for Skillnet Ireland funding later this year. This funding will allow us to continue developing and delivering learning and development activities and programmes for the restaurant and hospitality industry.

Over the last 3 years we have developed and delivered a range of programmes and initiatives, including:

  • Food & Beverage Skills training
  • Customer Care training
  • Professional Kitchen Management
  • Management Development & Leadership Programmes
  • Positive Wellbeing
  • 3 levels of Certified Hospitality e-learning programmes
  • Restaurant & Hospitality Skills/ Rebrand Yourself programmes for Jobseekers
  • Digital Standard Operating Procedures
  • We are currently developing:
  • LEAN e-learning programme – Creating Continuous Improvements in F&B
  • Sustainability for Small Hospitality Business e-learning programme
  • Basic English Language course for hospitality
  • Research report focusing on attracting and retaining talent

Over the next 3 years we will continue to run a range of learning and development initiatives, including public courses, in company training, and workshops which will be delivered through different methods – in person, virtual and blended.  We will also continue to run our range of e-learning training programmes.

What do we need from industry? 

Working with industry over the coming weeks to determine the skills and knowledge needs of employers, employees and jobseekers will be vital for a successful application. We are looking to engage with industry members to discuss how we can help meet the training/learning and development needs of industry.

What do we need to know from industry? 

We need to know:

  • high-level trends, opportunities and threats facing industry
  • current skills gaps amongst employees
  • training courses and initiatives employers need for employees
  • training budgets and preferred method of delivery for training
  • additional resources industry need to attract and retain talent (research, frameworks, competency models)
  • future skills needs (digital, sustainability, SME leadership, workforce innovation)
  • what skills/knowledge new entrants to the sector need to have

How will we do this? 

We will be doing this through one to one calls with members, a number of focus groups and an online survey.

How can you be involved? 

  1. Complete our Training Needs Analysis here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KD9SDL3 
  2. Register for our virtual Focus Groups on September 7th & 8th by emailing our Network Manager Niamh – niamh.omalley@rai.ie

Contact us

  • Email: info@rhskillnet.ie
  • Phone: 01 6779901