NOW Project
80 Belfast people with learning difficulties have acquired catering and hospitality skills thanks to this innovative training programme of catering skills run by the NOW Project. Many of the potential trainees were attending day centres for five days a week with little opportunity to experience and train in the real world of work.
NOW launched a Hospitality and Catering NVQ level one course in 2004 and working with one-to-one support, the trainees spent a day in the classroom and one day a week in a coffee shop. They worked through videos and role plays, with visual aids like colour-coded chopping boards, and were coached and mentored for three to six months before starting the NVQ.
The project ran from March 2004 to March 2006 and 80 people were trained, 71 of them gaining accredited qualifications, and others achieved individual units. Apart from the NVQ, which gave them the experience of serving customers and preparing food, they learned essential food hygiene and how to make gourmet coffees. Nine trainees are now in paid work, five in catering and four in retail.
For further details on NOW Project, please contact DEL Press Office on 028 9025 7872.