What do you need to work as a bartender in Sydney?
One credential is compulsory, one depends on the venue, and one just makes you easier to hire. What you actually need before your first shift.
Written byEdway
The short answer
You need an RSA. It is the only one of these that is compulsory — in New South Wales you must hold an RSA competency card to serve alcohol.
If the venue has gaming machines and you work near them, you need RCG as well. Barista training is not required, but it widens the shifts you can pick up.
RSA is the one you must have
RSA is Responsible Service of Alcohol, unit SITHFAB021. It applies wherever alcohol is sold, served or supplied — bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants, bottle shops, stadiums and festivals.
The course covers liquor law, spotting and refusing service to intoxicated or under-age patrons, and reducing alcohol-related harm.
There is no minimum age to do the training. You must be 18 or over to sell, serve or supply alcohol.
In Sydney, classes run at Mona Vale, Darlinghurst and Seven Hills, or you can study online at your own pace. How do you get your RSA in NSW? sets out the full card process.
RCG if the venue has gaming machines
Plenty of Sydney hotels and registered clubs put the bar and the gaming floor in the same job. If your work involves gaming machines, RCG — Responsible Conduct of Gambling, unit SITHGAM022 — is mandatory in New South Wales.
Your RSA does not cover it, and RCG does not cover alcohol service, so that kind of role needs both. You must be 18 or over to work with gaming machines.
Sydney RCG classes run at Darlinghurst and Seven Hills. Compare the two in RSA or RCG.
Coffee skills are a bonus
Most Sydney venues serve coffee as well as drinks, and a bartender who can pull a decent espresso is easier to roster.
Nothing obliges you to hold it. The accredited barista course is one blended day at Darlinghurst covering SITHFAB025 and the food-hygiene unit SITXFSA005, and that hygiene unit also counts as your food-handler training.
If you trained in another state
An interstate RSA is not automatically valid here. You complete a short online bridging course before you can get a New South Wales card, and that only works if your original training is recent enough.
If you are only in Sydney temporarily and not living here permanently, you can generally work on a current interstate RSA without bridging. Security and RSA-marshal roles are the exception — they always need the bridging course and the NSW card.
What you need to enrol
Valid photo identification and a Unique Student Identifier (USI). After you book, you complete a short language, literacy, numeracy and digital check in your student account.
Next step
Start with the RSA course page and choose New South Wales to see Sydney class dates and the online option.
If gaming machines are part of the job, add RCG.
Sources
- Liquor & Gaming NSW — training requirements for liquor and gamingWho must hold RSA and RCG in New South Wales
- Liquor & Gaming NSW — competency cardsThe competency card a New South Wales venue worker must hold
- training.gov.au — SITHFAB021, SITHGAM022 and SITHFAB025Unit codes and official titles
