“Culinary Arts Education in Support of Youth Employment and Social Inclusion “

The programme director of Culinary Arts Institute Kris Zysk, in his capacity of an expert to Culinary Arts and Hospitality Association (AKIG), took part in a workshop, held in Riga, Latvia, on October 29 – 30, 2015. Under the project “Culinary Arts Education in Support of Youth Employment and Social Inclusion” (CASYS).

The project is implementing within the framework of Erasmus + Programme in partnership with institutions from 7 countries – Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, UK and Bulgaria, including universities, vocational and continuing training centres, networks of NGOs and youth organisations, etc.

Due to the many years of experience as a trainer and expert in the field of Culinary Arts and Gastronomy, Chris Zysk presented a draft curriculum for adult education in the pilot course “Culinary Arts and Culinary Business Management.” The partners were quite intrigued by the topics that have not been previously covering in the traditional culinary training programmes, such as:

„Innovative Cooking Techniques and Products Supporting a Healthy Lifestyle“, „Waste Management and Recycling in Culinary Business“, „Organic Farming and Sustainable Cultural Tourism”, „Energy Efficiency in Culinary Business”, etc.

All participants shared the opinion that the existing training programmes on the European level are currently not relevant to the requirements of the labour market. Also, the actual needs of culinary industry and, thus, students do not acquire the knowledge and skills key to their subsequent professional realisation, dictated by the progress of modern technology, trends and scientific achievements. The efforts of all partners at this crucial phase will be aimed at developing a flexible training program that can be adapted by various educational and training institutions, according to the respective level of education they offer.