Elior UK’s innovative Chef School programme has beaten competition from British Airways, Barclays and Tesco to scoop the award for Best Operational Programme at the prestigious Training Journal Annual Awards Gala.
The nine-month training course gives Elior people in non-food preparation roles the skills and confidence they need to fulfil their potential and become chefs. An incredible 89% of its graduates from 2015 and 2016 schools have already started their dream job as a chef, delivering significant recruitment savings.
Sati Kaur and David James, the TJ Awards judges, said: “Elior developed a programme not only to address a skills gap in their organisation but to address a skills gap across the country. Chef School has successfully developed chefs from a range of different backgrounds and Elior now enjoys a highly successful retention rate, with trainees continuing with the company after their training.”
Mandie Corby, head of learning & development for Elior UK, said: “To win a national award for training is an epic achievement. It’s testament to everyone involved in delivering the programme and, moreover, to the students and their sponsors who have embraced Chef School and furthered their aspirations to become chefs. This award belongs to them.”
Having already transformed the lives of many Elior people, Chef School’s reputation has been growing fast and the course has doubled in size in 2017 to run two classes.
The award was accepted by Matt Jennings (Elior UK learning and development manager) Mandie Corby (Elior UK head of learning and development) Arran McDowell (Elior UK HR director) and Stuart Nisbet (Elior UK development chef).