Cookery Students 'Serve Up' Their Skills

Hospitality students served up their skills to potential employers at a specially-arranged lunch.

In scenes reminiscent of primetime television cookery shows, participants of the HARTE programme (the Hospitality and Retail Training for Employment) prepared a four-course menu for their guests at the Linenhall Suite of the Belfast Met college in Titanic Quarter.

But rather than being judged for a cash prize, they had the chance to impress some of the biggest employers in Northern Ireland’s hospitality business.

Among their guests were representatives from JRS Catering and Events Ltd (contractors for the MAC theatre) and Fitzers (catering contractors for Titanic Belfast) who worked with the college to provide the course to more than 70 previously-unemployed people.

The course was open to people in both Belfast and Lisburn and the Premier Inn hotel in Lisburn also collaborated with one of the training programmes.

The Belfast Met lunch was opened by Councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the deputy chairman of Belfast City Council’s Development Committee.

HARTE was launched in Belfast in January 2009 and the previous round of the programme enabled 90 people to gain employment in the hospitality and retail sector.

More than 190 participants have also gained recognised qualifications and completed personal development courses.

The programme was delivered for both councils by Time Associates, GEMS NI and Belfast Metropolitan College.

It is funded by Belfast City Council, Lisburn City Council and the European Social Fund and is supported by the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL).

For more information, go to www.belfastcity.gov.uk/businessprogrammes.

Photograph: Cora Bradley prepares to serve Councillor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir at the recent HARTE event at Belfast Metropolitan College's Titanic Quarter campus. Looking on is Sharon Wright of JRS Catering and Events Ltd, one of the prospective employers who attended the event.

(NE)