The Professional Cookery Training Package which has been developed and is being implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka with support from the Australian Government was recently launched by the High Commissioner Paul Stephens on September 22, at the VTA Training Centre Auditorium in Peradeniya.
This initiative is an innovative intervention to support the tourism industry as it recovers from the triple blows of terrorism, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic crisis.
According to recent data, 59% of industry employers in Sri Lanka are looking for chefs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 43% of the labor force was displaced, and the closure of training facilities and workplaces in 2020 and 2021 seriously impacted the supply of skills. This action is a component of a bigger set of assistance measures that Australia is providing to support Sri Lanka during this crisis.
The Professional Cooking Training Package encourages collaboration and joint efforts between training providers and employers. The training supports Sri Lankans to demonstrate mastery in the skills necessary to supply quality food services and goods to a variety of tourists.
The training package delivers relevant job-ready training to assist enterprises to reopen and start to recover enabling business to grow and prosper, generate gainful employment and better contribute to the inclusive economic growth of the country. The input and effective oversight of the Chef’s Guild of Lanka ensures that industry standards are delivered through use of high quality trainer manuals, lesson plans, student workbooks, and assessment tools all included in the package.
The Chef Guild of Lanka, the leading organization in the field, helped to establish the course and in collaboration with vocational training providers will deliver and evaluate the training. For trainees who successfully fulfill the program’s criteria, the Chef Guild will enable job placement services. With the objective of employment, these alliances allow learners to obtain training both in the training facility and in the workplace.
The Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka met with competitors from national round 2 of Supreme Chef Season 3 during his visit to the VTA Training Center in Peradeniya. Supreme Chef is an integrating initiative run by Skills for Inclusive Growth (S4IG) which aims to promote culinary arts among Sri Lankan youth as a rewarding and successful career option for professional growth and higher income earning employment within the tourism industry.
Many of the Supreme Chef contestants have undergone the Professional Cookery training package. Their skills, trials and tribulations will be on show for all to see as Supreme Chef Season 3 debuts on Rupavahini in October 2022.
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