letters
Students deserve a better view
After working in the industry for about five years and then returning to full-time education, I agree with Forbes Mutch's Opinion (Caterer, 2 April, page 25) regarding skills shortages.
It is not just knowledge that is important but rather how to apply it to a real work situation. College catering courses include industry work placements as an essential part of skills development in an effort to combine theory with practice.
For some students, their work placement is their first real taste of the industry and, just as with our customers, first impressions count.
If employers are aware of the value of investing in these students as potential employees and offer them relevant and structured work placement training, there will be a higher number of skilled students entering the trade, bringing long-term benefits to the industry as a whole.
After all, the students of today will be the managers of the future.
Kirsty Auld
Hospitality management student.
HCIMA is on the college case
Help is at hand in addressing the problem of college courses being "out of touch with industry", as highlighted by coverage of the Further Education Funding Council's report and Forbes Mutch's Opinion (Caterer, 2 April).
I am delighted to say that the HCIMA's "Corpus of Management Excellence", to be launched shortly, will provide a solution to the problem. It comprises a comprehensive analysis of management expertise, which will provide both the framework for the Association's own accreditation activities and a common currency for educators, industry trainers and individual managers to chart and plan for professional development.
The HCIMA is in a unique position, spanning both hospitality education and the industry. Over the years, we have assessed many thousands of HCIMA membership applications, and accredited hundreds of courses and qualifications from universities, colleges, trainers and employers.
Drawing on this unique archive, the Corpus of Management Excellence will set the benchmark against which future applications for HCIMA membership and upgrading will be measured, and training and education accredited.
In addition, it has far wider applications for hospitality education and industry generally. For example, course designers in universities and colleges will use it to benchmark their course content to industry needs and to formulate learning objectives for the periods of work experience which are integral to management education.
Since more than 200 national and international employers, representing all sizes of hospitality businesses, have contributed to the development of the Corpus, colleges can now benefit from an unprecedented level of industry input worldwide when developing courses.
David Wood
Chief executive,
HCIMA.
At last, a working solution?
I have been working as an internal Investors in People advisor for hotels in Devon and think that I have found a solution to making practical training in hotels interesting and of benefit to both the business and the trainee.
I use individual staff job description matrices which combine NVQ wordingfor particular hotel jobs(eg, chef, waiter, housekeeper, porters, etc) with the activities needed to meet the IIP standard (eg, teamwork and communication). This enables managers and heads of department to examine performance and measure the progress of their staff.
Even better, staff can be working towards an NVQ for their job while the hotel is achieving the IIP standard.
The concept has been approved by a TECassessor.
The TECs provide generous support for hotels wishing to achieve the Investors in People award, and the Tourism Action Group of the CBI produced a report some time ago in which it concluded that"…a commitment to an Investors in People culture must permeate all tourism businesses." Yet many hoteliers still hesitate.
The first experience of the industry for school-leavers and graduates certainly becomes relevant in an Investors in People culture.
Kenneth Campbell
Gray's Cottage,
Cullompton,
Devon.
Chefs are not the final judges
WHY on earth should chefs uniquely have the right to criticise restaurants (David Woodfall, Leave Criticism to the Experts, Caterer, 2 April, page 26)?
As Sir Terence Conran, for one, never fails to point out, chefs are an important part, but only a part, of what makes a restaurant a success. What about the architects, designers, managers, waiters, sommeliers, cleaners…?
The truth is that we have all - that's you and us, and even Mr Michael Winner - had enough hot dinners to tell a good ‘un from a bad ‘un. The sooner that some chefs rid themselves of the idea that "ordinary people" are somehow unfit to pass judgement on their dining-out experience, the happier, and stronger, their trade will be.
Richard and Peter Harden
Editors,
Harden's London Restaurants.
Life beyond the London limits
It is not surprising that Jonathan Meades's comments, made at the 1998 Chef Conference, triggered such lively responses (Caterer, 2 April, page 26).
I am encouraged to add our insight to the lively debate centred on capital versus regional cuisine. This insight stems from our sponsorship of the Roux Diners Club Scholarship.
The scholarship, in its 15th year, was founded by the Roux Brothers in conjunction with Diners Club International, and seeks to publicise what great talent we have among our ambitious young chefs and to improve standards in hotels and restaurants.
Analysing this year's eclectic scholarship entries, we are happy to report strong regional representation of extremely high quality. Young, skilful chefs representing leading establishments, including restaurants in Scotland and Wales, entered the tough contest.
The imminent national final will put six of tomorrow's culinary elite through their paces - and, interestingly, only one is from a London establishment.
The Roux Diners Club Scholarship does not rely on top talent solely from within the M25. In the experience of the scholarship, good food, superior hospitality and promising talent are not restricted to the capital. Competition is now even more fierce than before from skilled chefs in the counties.
We urge all involved in the industry to promote and foster promising talent in each corner of the UK.
DON OSVOG
Managing director,
Diners Club UK.
Rep-rehensible phone manners
THE mobile phone has been discussed many times in your pages, but does anyone else share my annoyance at the "rep" with the mobile?
A fortnight ago, a distillery rep called, sat for coffee with me and accepted two calls on his mobile. The latter was private so he had to excuse himself while he walkedaway to take it. He then complained about the intrusion of his phone but refused to switch it off.
Last week, at the Restaurant and Pub Show at Ingliston, company representatives on three different stands interrupted conversations with me to answer mobile phones without so much as an "excuse me". On each occasion, I walked away from the stand.
It beggars belief that companies invest heavily in a stand and associated costs at a trade show, that customers and potential customerstake the effort to attend the show, and the stand personnel give priority to their telephones!
JOHN SLOGGIE
Proprietor,
Castle Venlaw Hotel,
Peebles.
Robinson tops salary ladder
I WAS pleased to see the coverage of my report, Pay for Performance, on 20 major leisure companies (Caterer,9 April, page 7).
However, I would like to point out that where the report identifies chief executive's salaries, it refers to Gerry Robinson, the chairman at Granada, and not Charles Allen. It is this executive whose salary is 64 times that of the average employee in his companyand whose salary has increased by 18%.
It is worth remembering that the chief executive's salary is on average only 56.6% of his total package. It is important that the targets for bonuses and long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) should be really challenging. If the company rewards growth in earnings per share at just above inflation, as at Allied Domecq, this represents a modest improvement only.
Following the Greenbury and Cadbury recommendations, annual reports should clarify performance targets and what the executives will earn from the LTIPs if these targets are met.
JANET SALMON
Richmond,
Surrey.
