A free café and deli cookery programme, which gets underway in Buncrana next week, is hoping to fill a skills gap in the hospitality industry in Inishowen.
Following the success of the breakfast chef classes earlier this year, Inishowen Development Partnership have once again teamed up with Taste4Success to hold a second full cookery programme of 2023 and this time it is being aimed at the café/deli 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 lunch dishes soups, gourmet wraps and sandwiches, tray bakes, tarts/quiches and scones. It will also include basic knife and kitchen skills.
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 following the 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.
“We have seen a surge in recent years in Inishowen of new cafes opening up around the peninsula, however a lot of these places are still experiencing staffing issues,” explained Sinead.
“We thought that by facilitating a course like this, with the help of Taste4Success, then it might give someone a chance to get a step up into this growing local 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 Café and Deli Cookery Programme is currently being offered to anyone who is unemployed/in receipt of a social welfare payment. The Food Hygiene/HACCP qualification gets underway on September 28th in IDP offices in Buncrana, while the cookery element starts on Tuesday October 3rd in Crana College Buncrana from 6-9pm for six weeks.
For more information or to sign up today email katie@inishowen.ie or call us on 93-62218
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