Gary Spencer and Monica Doherty, Instructors with Solomon College’s Food Service Supervisor Preparation Program share with Diversity Magazine, how they get students job ready. Different perspectives of the program are also shared through the eyes of student, Shamsud Doha, and one of their employer partners, Tony Mishra, Owner of Olly Fresco’s in downtown Edmonton.
Gary Spencer: “The Food Service Supervisor Preparation Program, is a real
world education about how businesses are organized. How to manage and
get along with others. It prepares you to deal with all the challenges in
food services including meeting customer needs, organizing materials, and
being able to be a part of a restaurant team. So, we enjoy teaching skills
and developing students so they are confident about management structures. As a boss, they should have the skills to be able to create successful results”.
Monica Doherty shares what kind of skill sets students need
before they get out there into the world.
“Yeah, so we focus on business management leadership for food services, and we flesh that out with some really practical skills. Keeping in
mind that they’re English language learners. So, we focus on some language pieces, while giving them some really practical chances to role-play, do assignments, develop computer skills, and graduate from the program with certificates like WHMIS, First Aid, Food Safety, and Proserve. So they leave and are able to offer quite a bit to an employer.
Getting excited as he edges towards graduation, Doha shares his
optimism five months into the program. “…Oh yeah, because I’m from a
different background, I’m learning a lot, and I’m even thinking about
becoming an entrepreneur down the road. There is a month of practical training to go that will prepare me to become a supervisor, and later a manager…”.
Diversity Magazine also had the chance to hear from Tony Mishra, Owner of Olly Fresco’s in downtown Edmonton.”…This is a grab and go concept for serving downtown core professional customers. In this sort of setup, we
need people who are more hands-on, meaning they have skill sets for a
position in the kitchen. Not cooking, but prepping, preparing, chopping
and organizing things, helping the chef to do their job and then running
the buffet. Customer relationship is going to be another important thing
to understand in a fast-paced environment such as this. Because of the high
volume nature, the customers are mostly professionals, we want our staff
to be courteous, well spoken, and pleasant to be able to answer customer’s
questions effectively. Those are some of the things we look for in this
sort of setup. We do have an ongoing relationship with Solomon college and I know their Special Projects Advisor, their staff, and their Director, so we do have an understanding…”.
