Care UK Launches Chef Academy, and its #FairKitchens Movement.
Care UK celebrates two of its key initiatives on Companies That Care Day – it’s in house Chef Academy, and its leadership in the #FairKitchens movement.
Chef Academy – colleague development programme
Care UK is the first provider in the country to establish its own Chef Academy, offering a bespoke development programme for people with some kitchen experience who aspire to run their own care home kitchen team. The Chef Academy supports designated training for its chefs of all levels to achieve NVQ 2 and 3. It is an excellent opportunity for team members to develop themselves and for Care UK to invest in the care chefs of the future.
Katarzyna Haber-Bialkowska started her journey at Care UK’s Highmarket House three years ago as a Host, occasionally helping as a Kitchen Assistant and started studying her first qualification within the Chef Academy. Shortly after achieving this, she received her first promotion to Chef, before being promoted into her current role as Second Chef, just one month later.
Not only has the apprenticeship provided steppingstones to one of her life goals, but it has also given her more of an insight into what being a Chef is all about. When asked how her apprenticeship has helped her with her current role, Katarzyna said, “I wouldn’t be able to do what I do now without the knowledge I received from the Chef Academy. I just want to continue growing and growing in my career until hopefully one day I can achieve my dream of becoming a Head Chef.”
#FairKitchens – supporting colleagues beyond the kitchen
#FairKitchens is a world global movement that recognises the talented and creative chefs, but also teaches the importance of having a good work-life balance. At Care UK, this provides kitchen teams with a positive, and supportive work environment and more sociable working hours than chefs in other sectors. Care UK led the way by being the first company within the care sector to join this movement, and now #FairKitchens has over 20,000 community members learning from and supporting each other.
Food and Hotel Services Director, Jon Bicknell said,
“We are passionate about the wellbeing of our colleagues which is why we are ambassadors for the global #FairKitchens movement, which supports a more inclusive, healthy culture in hospitality. We believe our kitchens are supportive and innovative places to work, and we know happy and skilled colleagues deliver the very best for residents. Being a chef in one of our care homes is an incredibly fulfilling experience and we are proud to have so many highly qualified people cooking for residents.”
