Helping Wairarapa teachers upskill

Wairarapa food technology teachers have a few extra tricks up their sleeves thanks to the help of UCOL’s Chef Training team.

UCOL Chef Training lecturers recently hosted an upskilling day for secondary school food technology teachers from around the Wairarapa.

Teachers were shown how to make dishes such as Vietnamese rice paper rolls and buttermilk pannacotta, how to bake sourdough bread, and techniques for cutting vegetables.

The upskilling day followed a similar training which UCOL ran for Manawatū teachers last year.

UCOL Hospitality and Chef Training Programme Leader Ian Drew says the upskilling day was a great chance to get to know local food technology teachers.

“It was good to have that face to face connection with the teachers. They are the ones teaching potential UCOL students, so it’s good to be able help them build their skillsets and show them what we do here.”

Tararua College teacher Rachel Ireland says the upskilling day was “extremely enjoyable and worthwhile”

“These kinds of days allow us to form relationships with industry providers. It also allows teachers to network with each other and share ideas which they are using with their students. The day also provided practical experiences of which teachers can use in their classrooms, and provided refreshment of ideas and exposure to new ideas of which can be related back to use at school.”

Ian says his team is planning future upskilling days for school teachers.

“The feedback from the teachers is that they want to learn things that they can teach students within a 40 minute class, so that’s something we’re going to be focusing on.”

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