Helping young people rise to hospitality challenge
The Nelson Training Centre is a great education facility that focuses on helping young people enter the hospitality workforce.
It provides an alternative for students whose schooling didn’t work out, by creating another way to achieve NCEA level 2 through hospitality.
The Nelson Training Centre (NTC) has been owned by Y-Nelson since 2017 as part of their community education programme. Manager Chris Duke told me that NTC provided a pathway to employment to the hospitality sector for young people who need a little extra care and support.
This pathway includes an introduction to continuing their career training at NMIT’s school of Culinary Arts.
“We can help students achieve NCEA level 2 and the New Zealand Certificate in Hospitality (Level 2),” said Duke.
“Once a term, we do a tour of the NMIT facilities so our students get an understanding of what a pathway forward could look like for them. Chris Fortune, the Culinary Arts tutor at NMIT is fantastic to work with and really does encourage our students to continue their education.
“By introducing them to the environment at NMIT, our students also see the many other options for learning, so while they may start with us learning about the hospitality sector, it isn’t unusual for them to go on and study in a different field.”
One of the key roles of NTC is to help young people transition from school to adult learning and get them used to working in a structured environment, a place where fellow students rely on them to be on time and ready to work. They soon learn that if they are late to class then they are letting their colleagues down.
While Duke is the centre manager, NTC has specialist tutors who pass on not just skills, but their personal experiences too. “Mandy Preston, who is our front-of-house tutor, is well travelled, a karate blackbelt and an artist who brings that background to her tasks of teaching essential hospitality skills and inspiring students to achieve their goals,” Duke said.
Preston has worked in the hospitality sector since her early 20s and says as well as bringing up four children, she has been able to work in some fantastic places around the world.
“I set up The Beach Cafe in Nelson around 20 years ago and have worked in a number of cafes including the Bridge St Collective and The Kitchen and have also travelled a lot.
“So, when I talk with students about how being able to do something as simple as making a great coffee means you can find work almost anywhere, I can support that with real examples. Having great skills really does open the doors to international travel.”
Duke told me that many of their students didn’t really fit into the traditional schooling model for various reasons. Some are anxious, others have tended to close themselves away because they have been bullied or have moved here from another town and haven’t been able to make friends.
“Teenagers need each other, and we have an environment here that means they get support and can make friendships. It’s a place where they feel they are part of a workplace family.
“We often get quite young students, many have never worked before, so we ease them into getting used to customers by having them work behind the counter taking orders and payment before they serve food to people in the cafe,” said Preston.
“There are many examples of success. If you visit a cafe or restaurant in Nelson, you are bound to come across an ex-NTC student.”
Houdini Tuani is the chef tutor at NTC and he brings, not just huge experience, but also a very calm attitude that you can tell rubs off on the students.
Tuani has been cooking for more than 25 years; he trained in Auckland before working in hotels and cafés in New Zealand and overseas.
“I bought a one-way ticket to Sydney and worked in a restaurant at Bondi Beach for several years and at the Tides in Nelson for seven years before joining the small team here.
“I love working with students, love teaching them how to make restaurant quality food, it doesn’t always work out, but we keep trying until they get it right,” he said. “As tutors, we learn how many mistakes can be made that we didn’t know could be made. The joy they get when they get it right is awesome to see.”
Duke said the students got to experience the satisfaction from having a great day making delicious food and serving it in a cafe but, like any workplace, it doesn’t always run smoothly. “It’s OK to make mistakes. We encourage them to learn how to manage those and do better next time.”
I wanted to know what has made NTC so successful for so long as they approach their 37th year helping young people. Duke said their real strength was their small size.
“Instead of 30 learners in a classroom with one tutor, we have 20 in the whole place and that means we can give them the support they need individually, something one person can’t do in a large classroom environment.”
If you want to see what these young people are learning and have a really good-value meal, then the Back Alley Café at the Nelson Training Centre is open every Thursday during term time from 10.30am for coffee, then food from 11am until 1pm (eat in or takeaway).
Be warned, these meals are so popular so make sure you get in early.