Culinary skills programme creates jobs

June 8th, 2011 by Susan Reynard | Categories: food, industry, people, social, tourism, training

On 2 June some 54 entrepreneurs received recognition for their efforts as they graduated from the Tiger Brands Enterprise Development programme.

The Enterprise Development partnership between Tiger Brands and the Centre for Culinary Excellence (CCE) is a project that is intended to build cooking and catering skills among Black-owned catering companies and chefs. The end goal of the program is to improve the abilities of entrepreneurs within the industry, to enhance their career opportunities, improve their quality of life and ultimately create sustainable businesses in the culinary industry.

The programme entails the training of entrepreneurs in practical cooking skills as well as theoretical training, which focuses on hygiene, food costing and business management skills for caterers.

Tiger Brands enabled two groups of entrepreneurs to train in Johannesburg, as well as a group in Durban and one in Cape Town. Johannesburg’s third group is training in the CCE kitchen at the South African Chefs Association (SACA) currently.

At the recent graduation ceremony, the participants received a knife set and certificate acknowledging their newly obtained qualification. Four graduates received special recognition as best students for their hard work and dedication to the programme.

Mapule Moloto, a young, semi-disabled entrepreneur, was one of the graduates. She says that due to her disability she struggled to find employment. From a young age she loved to cook and saw an opportunity to take it further, opening her own catering business in Sebokeng in the Vaal.

“It is very important for me to be able to stand on my own feet and do something with my life,” she says. “I am going to go out there and say – Here I am! – and I hope that I can motivate other people with disabilities to also do something with their lives.”

Khanya Rajuili, CEO of Eco- Access, a section 21 company founded in 1994 to champion the rights of people with disability, referred Moloto as a candidate for the Enterprise Development programme.

Pictured above are: Graham Donet, general manager SACA; Itumeleng Mathibe, one of the Tiger Brands graduates; and Kabelo Segone, HTA lecturer and SACA board member.