Meet the Team: Sarah Townsend

Meet Sarah, CTA Training Specialists’ Operations Assistant

With a passion for helping people achieve their goals, a qualified trainer and assessor & an all-round superstar in front-of-house & back-of-house hospitality processes…CTA Training Specialists’ Operations Assistant, Sarah Townsend is a triple threat!

How taking off her Chef jacket led Sarah to discover a different avenue within the hospitality industry

After kickstarting her career in the hospitality industry as a Chef in Melbourne where she completed her apprenticeship and worked for a bustling catering company, Sarah made the move to bring her enviable cooking skills to the sunshine state in 2011. After successfully obtaining a position in a busy Mexican restaurant as a waitress, Sarah quickly mastered various areas of the restaurant’s service procedures in the front and back of house. Keen to take on a new challenge & lend her formidable skillset in a different environment, Sarah decided to try her hand in a different industry as an educator in the Early Childhood sector.

After spending 7 years as an educator, Sarah found she was missing the excitement of the hospitality industry and buttoned her jacket back up, returning to her roots as a Chef.

Being back in the kitchen promptly reminded Sarah’s body of how physically demanding the role of a Chef is, Sarah switched gears and began to work towards obtaining her TAE and made the move into the RTO industry as an Early Childhood Education trainer and assessor.

A quadruple threat to watch! Sarah’s diverse professional background and skillset will ensure her success as she takes on a range of new projects.

This unique combination of professional roles and skills led Sarah to her position with the Student Services team at CTA Training Specialists, where she further developed her knowledge of RTOs and assisted a range of stakeholders across multiple areas of the business, including trainers, students, teachers and parents with any questions about CTA’s range of courses.

In Sarah’s new position as the Operations Assistant for CTA, she is looking forward to building her skillset further as she assists CTA Training Specialists’ management team with a range of varied tasks that will provide a range of new challenges to conquer and succeed!

Around the office, Sarah is known as ‘Sez’ and is always ready with a range of NRL facts that would take some of the biggest footy fans to test! Sez loves to cook, watch her beloved Bunnies take to the field (Rabbitohs) and camping on the beach to help her reset her mind and soul.

A positive outlook for the future of hospitality in Australia

Passionate about the hospitality industry and creating moments that matter, Sez loves being a part of an industry that constantly strives to help people find what they want or need, crafting unforgettable experiences and of course…biting into something delicious!

After a tough couple of years following the impact that COVID-19 had on our industry, Sarah remains positive about the future of the hospitality industry: “Witnessing how hospitality businesses quickly adapted to suit the changing landscape and challenges that we faced throughout that period was incredible! Communities came together to support their local coffee shops, restaurants and everything in between, and I hope to see this continue. With multiple factors affecting hospitality providers such as the increasing cost of living and housing, it’s clear that our industry really comes down to a community of supporting one another. I’m feeling very hopeful for the future of hospitality in Australia and am excited to be a part of the journey!”