A FREE Breakfast chef cookery class, which gets underway next week, is hoping to fill a skills gap in the hospitality industry in Inishowen.
Inishowen Development Partnership, in association with Taste 4 Success, are holding their first full cookery programme of 2023 and this time it is being aimed at the breakfast cook industry.
The course entails six evening sessions in the kitchen in Crana College in Buncrana where you will get hands on experience of preparing and cooking popular breakfast dishes from scratch, such as Eggs Benedict, waffles, pancakes, banana bread, scones and much more, under the watchful eye of our trainer Martin Lynch.
However in addition to the hands on experience, the participants will spend one day in the classroom, where they will complete a level 2 qualification in food safety and HACCP. This is a qualification needed to work in any kitchen/deli.
There will also be an option for participants to do an additional one day barista training course, which is a great employability qualification for anyone.
Sinead McDaid, Enterprise Officer at IDP, says she hopes the course will act as a starting point for those considering employment in the Food Industry and want to learn the fundamental skills required to operate in food preparation and how a commercial kitchen operates.
Having carried out engagement with the hospitality industry through the InBusiness Series in 2022, Sinead said the breakfast trade was highlighted repeatedly for having a lack of staff.
“Since covid-19 the hospitality industry has saw so many changes and staff retention has been a huge problem for many businesses,” said Sinead.
“The breakfast industry has been hit harder than a lot of different sectors so we thought that by facilitating a course like this, with the help of Taste 4 Success, then it might give someone a chance to get a step up in this industry.
“We ran a similar course like this at the end of 2022 and we received great feedback about the classes – as well as being practical and useful the participants learned a lot and had a great time cooking together – a number also progressed into employment which is great,” added Sinead.
The Breakfast Chef Bootcamp is currently being offered to anyone who is unemployed/in receipt of a social welfare payment. The Food Hygiene/HACCP qualification gets underway on April 17 in IDP offices in Buncrana, while the cookery element starts on Monday April 24th in Crana College from 6-9pm.
