Dayan Francis

2024 | Trade - Hospitality

“Hospitality is my passion. I love every bit about it, and I love creating sustainable practices in every venue I work at. Sustainability is important to me as it protects my future and one day, my kids' future.”

I grew up in a small town in Western Australia before moving to Perth to finish my schooling and then a Certificate III in hospitality. From that Tafe restaurant, I was selected by Worlds Skills to compete in restaurant service. World Skills is an organisation that chooses people all over the world to compete in their country to then go on to compete against other countries. I trained consistently and increased my skill set past our regulation for the competition and went on to winning a silver medal for Australia.

After the competition, I moved back home, where I was given the opportunity to manage a pub with also had a bar, a restaurant, and a hotel. That opportunity taught me many, many lessons. I achieved a lot and lost some. But most importantly, I gained experience and learned so much.

I recently gained an interest in cooking not just the regular dishes, but the cultural dishes from our international chef, whose creativity has really blown my mind and encouraged me to dive deeper than just front of house.

A Global Footprints Scholarship is for you if you are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Describe something you have done at work or are working on, that helps the environment. Why is it important to you?

Sustainability is important to me as it protects my future and one day, my kids' future.

I promote sustainability in each venue I work at, some smaller than others. I've aided in helping workplaces for sustainable practises from things as little as using contents of leftover ice buckets on plants all the way to bigger projects like giving coffee dryers and teabags to locals for their gardens have even helped plant Citrus trees for everyday drinks.

I try to reduce my footprint wherever I can, such as recycling, reusing, using environmentally sustainable products and more. I've also been known to be picking up rubbish from the streets.

I feel inspired by the many sustainability inventions that are being made around the world, especially the Sea Bin created by two Australian surfers. This amazing thing floats on top of rivers or oceans, collecting rubbish into its bin. It was created by surfers who loved their ocean, and the passion they have for surfing and wanting to see their ocean cleaner makes this such an inspirational project.

I find it even more inspiring because these are local Australians that have their work spread all over the world, and I hope that someday something I create will go as far as theirs have and do as much good.

As a BBM Scholar you can choose to go anywhere in the world. Where will you travel with your Scholarship and why?

With this scholarship, I hope to visit Switzerland and experience their hospitality industry, culture, and their way of life. I look forward to diving into their culture while providing the best service I can meeting new people along the way.

Switzerland is one of the leading countries for sustainability in the world. I'm interested to see how they include sustainability in hospitality, with their techniques to reduce water and energy usage, food waste and much more.

75% of Switzerland’s power already comes from renewable sources and they have almost eradicated poverty. How does hospitality help with that?

And in what ways can I bring it back home? I'm so eager to learn new practices from different countries.

One place I’d like to visit as part of my scholarship is the Schloss Wartegg restaurant. It is an inspirational restaurant employing many of the best sustainable practices. Their services differ from ours in many ways. The biggest being their use of local produce from a 2500 square meter garden. Many restaurants only have herbs and vegetable while Schloss Wartegg's garden includes more than that, from fresh herbs and salad greens to cabbages and tomatoes all through to berries, fruits and flowers for presentations of drinks and dishes. Everything comes from its own sustainable garden where water wastage doesn't exist.

Learning from one of the leading countries in sustainability in my industry can only lead to better ideas, ideas that Australians may have not thought of yet also in hospitality.

“Dayan’s WorldSkills success is commendable and demonstrates commitment in a genuine way. He is clearly keen to learn and grow. […] Dayan shows genuine admiration for the ability of people using their skills and strengths to change the world for the better, and it will be interesting to see how he will apply this ethos to achieving change for sustainability in his industry.”

– Global Footprints Scholarship Assessor Panel