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Springboard London & the South East
News
It's Summer in the city, even if the weather isn't playing ball!
There may not be summer weather in the city yet, but Springboard's Summer School is hitting a high spot just the same.
Springboard's Summer School gives students a whole new insight into the Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism and Travel sectors over the summer holidays, including structured industry-based training and paid work experience. Plus, companies get the opportunity to recruit the cream of the talent into businesses.
Douglas Oram, Chairman of the Trustees of the PM Trust, who are sponsoring the Food Hygiene and Health & Safety training for the students, said "The Trustees are delighted to be able to provide support, for the second consecutive year, to the students at Springboard's Summer School. We should all be aware of the importance to the Industry of the young people joining us; they are our Industry's future and we should do all that we can to facilitate their education."
Thirty-five students have been selected in the London region to take part this year and will also finish Summer School with industry-recognised qualifications in Food Hygiene, Health and Safety and Welcome Host. All are planning to pursue careers in the industry.
This year the students will be working in a variety of establishments from hotels to contract caterers and will be undertaking positions as chefs, front of house, porters, human resources and house keeping.
"We always have a fantastic response to Summer School from both students and employers," said Sam Coulstock, Customer Relationship Director at Springboard.
"The students are looking forward to their placements and I'm sure that they will make a valuable contribution to the industry, both now and in their future careers."
London and South East announce FutureChef 2007 finalists
On Saturday 3rd February, Lewisham College hosted the London Regional Final of FutureChef 2007. There were seven competitors from across London all competing for a place in the Grand Final which is being held on Monday 19th March at Westminster Kingsway College.
Each competitor had won their local heat and had spent time with a professional chef from the industry. The standards had greatly improved.
The judges on the day were:-
- Henry Brossi - Executive Chef of The Dorchester
- Andrew Bennett - Executive Chef and F&B Manager of Sheraton Park Lane Hotel
- Darren Kutty - Head Chef of Ramada Hyde Park
- Andy Aston - Supervising Chef of Restaurant Associates
The winning dish was cooked by Louis Tsaparelli of Highlands School in North London. His mentor was Andrew Holmes of Malmaison, and they will now spend more time together devising a dish from a bag of ingredients for the final.
The South East Regional Final was held on Monday 5th February at South Downs College. There were seven competitors from across the South East of England. The winner was Jake Small, aged 12 of John Colet School in Buckinghamshire. His mentor is Daniel Richardson of Hartwell House Hotel, near Aylesbury. Jake’s menu was Shetland salmon cooked two ways confit in a spiced oil and oak smoked perfumed with Darjeeling tea, served on sautéed cucumber with confit potato and cherry vine tomatoes. Dessert was hot dark chocolate fondant with passion fruit.
The judges were:-
- Luke Williams - Executive Chef at Chewton Glen
- Nigel Boschetti - Executive Chef at the Royal Lancaster Hotel
- Omero Gallucci - Executive Chef at Gallucci’s, Arora International Hotel
A big thank you must go to all the mentors who have been involved in the competition this year. There has been considerable time spent in helping the students prepare for the Regional Finals.
Springboard London and South East – Review of 2006 and looking ahead to 2007
At this time of the year it is always a good time to stop and review the last twelve months.
Springboard London and South East have had a busy 2006. The year kicked off with the first major fundraising event the region has staged – 'East Meets West' at The Riverbank Park Plaza hotel where we raised a whopping £25,000 to support the work we do with young people, the unemployed and disadvantaged adults in the London area.
Our Young People programme saw an increase in numbers and Summer School was the most successful to date with 87% of the students gaining full time employment or continuing further or higher education within the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector.
The overall winner of FutureChef, Michael Duff (aged just 14) came from the South East. We have since introduced him to some of the most respected chefs in the country. Also, 125 schools and over 1,500 students were involved in the competition and many of them have now started college, or we have supported them onto apprenticeships in our industry.
The work we are doing with the unemployed and disadvantaged has also been increasing and this year we have placed over 100 people into full time jobs in hospitality and catering, given over 300 people basic industry qualifications and given more than 6,000 careers and advice sessions.
Promoting the industry as a great place to work has also been top of our agenda. The annual Springboard Awards for Excellence saw London and South East based organisations and individuals pick up the majority of the awards and the Olive Barnett Award has seen an increase in entries each year.
Buddy Day saw the industry across the region getting involved in job shadowing activities along with back to the floor events for some of the biggest names in the sector. Our business partnership membership has risen giving us more industry support which in turn allowed more of the sector to take advantage of our work.
So, 2007 promises to be as busy as ever. With FutureChef in full swing and Summer School just around the corner, we are placing a bid to the London Development Agency (LDA) to continue our work with the unemployed. Our target for 2007 is to help more and more people make a career choice into our industry.
Please take a look at our calendar of events for the first six months of 2007
If you would like more information about any of the events or would like to become involved then please do get in touch
Best wishes
Springboard London and South East
For more information contact:
Mr. Sam Coulstock
Customer Relationships Director
Springboard UK Ltd & Springboard Charitable Trust
3 Denmark Street
London
WC2H 8LP
Direct Tel: 020 7395 9497
Office Tel: 020 7497 8654
Fax: 020 7497 2466
Email: samc@springboarduk.org.uk
Website: www.springboarduk.org.uk/regional/london
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