Media Release

COMPASS GROUP CHEF'S ACADEMY
The Compass Group Chef Academy was launched with fanfare in February this year, and the first wave of students are doing exceptionally well, enjoying on-the-job training at some of Compass Group SA, a leading foodservice company’s busiest business units.

In partnership with the Swiss Hotel School in Ferndale and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, and supported by The Presidency under the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), the Compass Group Chef Academy provides a one year THETA (Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training Authority) accredited certificate to participants. During the course of the year, learners focus on Professional Cookery to learn the skills necessary to work in a fully operational hospitality service facility.

As part of the programme, students progress through cohesive, relevant, on-the-job training and the first three modules is already nearing completion. Five of the trainees have been placed at Town and Country Cuisine, a prominent Johannesburg upmarket function and event catering company which forms part of Compass Group SA and the rest of the group has been spread over 13 other Compass Group SA units.

The guys came into our kitchen with very little theory and no food experience, explains Bruce Gentz, Town and Country sous chef. We trained them on all aspects, starting right at the beginning with basic hygiene and basic knife skills.

Bruce continues to say that although the Compass Group Chef Academy students will walk away with a formal certification, it is the strong practical foundation they receive which will be most valuable in their future careers. The best way to teach a chef is to guide him through the kitchen cooking is not something you can learn out of a text book. Each candidate works with a qualified chef from the beginning of a recipe, right through to completion this level of hands on experience is invaluable.

Graduates of this programme will have excellent food skills and in-depth food preparation and hygiene knowledge. They could very possibly be the chefs who cater for the delegates and tourists who will be here for the World Cup in 2010.

The students will be rotated to other types of units on August 1. Lientjie van Rensburg, national talent manager, says this rotation ensures students get maximum benefit from the programme, which focuses specifically on the needs of the food sector priority areas. For example, at Town and Country, students would learn about function catering but for their next module, they could be placed at one of our hospital units, where they will learn about the importance of ‘therapeutic diets’, explains Lientjie.

Participants receive base qualifications as they complete each module which means that if the student is unable to complete the course, he/she will still have the opportunity of gaining the qualifications and experience necessary to take up employment as food preparation workers, cooks, fast food cooks, institution and cafeteria cooks, short order cooks, and chefs.  The entire programme consists of 70% practical work and 30% theory.

Once the course is completed, graduated students will be guaranteed full time employment at Compass Group SA. In addition, the top achieving learners will have the opportunity to work internationally, within the Compass Group, which operates in 64 countries around the world.

It is the possibility of international experience which appeals most to Moeti Khunou, a 25-year-old Chef Academy student who has been based at Town and Country Cuisine over the last period. So far, this has been a truly wonderful experience. Town and Country Cuisine is a very busy unit, so I have learned a lot and there is still so much to learn!

When I complete this course, I will already have valuable work experience. I hope to one day use this knowledge to see the world.

Moeti is one of 32 students currently completing the Professional Cookery Certificate. Four students have fallen away due to personal and medical reasons.

The learners are showing excellent potential, and everything is on track, says Lientjie. I am proud to say that we are also getting wonderful co-operation from the unit managers, who are very enthusiastically assisting the students.

In order to assist Compass Group to address one of South Africa's identified critical and scarce skills areas, the Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training Authority (THETA) has awarded Compass Group SA, 30 unemployed learnerships. This support will enable Compass Group SA to start with their next group of 48 learners on October 01st.