Professional Cookery Diploma scoops top training award
The Diploma was jointly developed by sector skills council, People 1st, and City & Guilds in response to a pressing need for ‘work-ready’ entrants who could hit the ground running in their first catering jobs and not require remedial training.
The new course had to be respected by employers, centres and learners, as well as secure government funding. Based on extensive research with hospitality employers, the course is much more practical providing budding chefs with a solid foundation of cooking techniques. It offers clear progression by introducing different types of cuisine, ingredients, food hygiene as well as an insight into the intense pressures of working in a professional kitchen.
Mandatory units equip students with practical skills such as cooking meat, fish and pasta. They are put to the test in production kitchens and overseen by professional chefs from the industry who are invited into centres to help with practical assessments and provide masterclasses.
After two years of developing and piloting the Diploma, City & Guilds has begun to roll it out through its college network. Over 50 institutions are currently offering the qualification, collectively teaching around 3000 students per year.
Colleges also screen applicants to make sure they have the right personal skills, motivation and commitment to complete the course. As a result, completion rates are as high as 90 per cent. Candidates are further motivated by the fact that the qualifications are graded as pass, merit and distinction.
Feedback from centres and employers has been extremely positive, with reports that students are finding the course both rewarding and challenging.
Phil Raynsford, Strategic Development Director at People 1st said: “It is a huge achievement and the most important development in chef training in the last decade.”
City & Guilds and People 1st aim to make the Professional Cookery Diploma, the qualification of choice in colleges nationwide by 2012, by which time tens of thousands of better qualified chefs will be ready for the millions of visitors expected at the Olympic Games.
