BOLAND COLLEGE is the only public FET college in the Western Cape privileged to be included in the training of 800 young unemployed people in the government’s national EPWP job-creation project awarded to the South African Chefs Association (SACA).
A total of 180 of the 800 young people, who will be trained as chefs, come from the Western Cape and 32 have been allocated to Boland College.
The other training providers in the Western Cape are Chez Gourmet, Capsicum, Silwood Kitchen and the Institute of Culinary Arts.
This six-month programme is internationally accredited by City and Guilds and the successful candidates will be awarded a Level 1 IVQ Certificate in Food Preparation and Cooking.
Boland College had to become accredited to offer this programme before the training could start in the state-of-the-art industrial kitchen at the Paarl campus.
An essential part of the training is workplace experience. Boland College is extremely grateful to Paarl Medi-Clinic, Paarl Hospital, Stellenbosch General Hospital, the Police College in Paarl and Boland College’s hostels for hosting the students for their experiential learning. They start their workplace training on 4 July.
With a very accomplished Jonene Brandt in the facilitator’s role, the students can boast 100% attendance and they seem to be loving the experience from all accounts.
“It’s quite a challenge to keep up with the buying of the ingredients and finding a deep freezer big enough to accommodate the chicken specials, but I love the exhilaration I experience when I see young people enjoying themselves while they are given such a wonderful chance in life,” said Boland College’s senior manager responsible for implementing this project for SACA, Rona van der Westhuizen.
The students will complete their training at the end of November this year.
