The ski city of Revelstoke in Canada is coming to Ireland this week to recruit Irish workers to fill shortages in the hospitality sector for summer 2018 and beyond.
Irishman Patrick Shields, general manager of the Sutton Place Hotel, a 205-suite ski-in ski-out luxury property at Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, is attending Cork Institute of Technology's hospitality careers day on Friday, and will also be meeting students at GMIT, Waterford IT and Dublin IT.
Shields describes Revelstoke as a “year-round playground”.
“It has amazing skiing and snowboarding in winter as well as the mountain coaster, hiking, white water rafting and mountain biking in summer, among many other activities.”
Shields is looking to recruit chefs of all levels, concierges, housekeepers, front desk agents, supervisors, managers, servers, retail sales associates and heavy equipment maintenance supervisors and mechanics, not only for his own hotel, but for other hospitality businesses in the town, which is located about four and a half hours' drive from Calgary and five and a half hours from Vancouver.
Existing employees come from all over the world, and there is a “great Irish presence”.
“Brian from Cork is a member of our concierge team, we have a ski instructor Donal from Wicklow and Caleb in our housekeeping department is from Northern Ireland,” Shields says.
Knowing how to ski or snowboard is not necessary in order to apply.
“Our friendly instructors and staff will help you on that,” says Shields, who skis himself every second or third day.
“Revelstoke Mountain Resort is the most vertical in North America so the skiing is challenging but a lot of fun. You certainly learn fast!”
Canada has 10,700 International Experience Canada (IEC) work permits available to young Irish people this year, 7,700 for those on a working holiday and 2,500 for young professionals, who have a job offer before applying. The IEC programme allows people aged 18 to 35 to work in Canada for up to two years.
Shields is accepting applications by email to pshields@suttonplace.com, and the recruitment drive is open to “persons from all walks of life looking to gain short, medium or long term employment in Canada,” he says.
