News

Quality hospitality and cookery qualifications for RTOs now available!

April 17, 2020 by Aubyn Fauteux

Training providers asked, and we listened… RTO Works is excited to introduce our new suite called Hospitality Works! We’ve developed these qualifications off the back of considerable demand from RTOs for high quality commercial cookery and hospitality management resources. Prospective students have been requesting these certificates and diplomas, and now training providers can access the material to deliver them that isn’t just compliant, it’s been developed in cooperation with industry specialists.

What are the qualifications?

Easy-to-use material is now available to our RTO partners for the following:

‘Commercial Cookery’ provides the essential skills needed to get started with a career in the kitchen – with the ability to work effectively and maintain the quality and safety of food. ‘Hospitality Management’ provides the foundation for students to apply structured leadership in the areas of accommodation, dining and guest services – from large hotels to small cafés.

Get flexible learning and assessment

With Hospitality Works, we’ve created resources that are both flexible and user friendly – with two key strengths…

Delivery of core units in any order, without an overlap of content

Because most units across these qualifications share criteria, we supply a bank of fact sheets that outline all the knowledge necessary to complete their units, which work in conjunction with each unit’s Trainer Guide. If a student has already completed a unit that provides the knowledge and skills required in the fact sheet for another unit, the trainer can decide to skip that section – if they have already covered the content (for example, knowledge related to knife sharpening). Alternatively, that fact sheet may be used as a refresher, depending on the needs of the cohort. The Commercial Cookery courses even include a bank of recipes, with each recipe mapped to the units for which it’s suitable. However, the tools provided also allow RTOs to choose their own appropriate recipes instead – as long as they fulfil the learning and assessment requirements specified (i.e. cooking methods, techniques or ingredients). This dynamic learning model eliminates tedious repetition and allows for learning delivery in any sequence.

Co-assessment arrangements for units, without the restriction of clustering

As the tools provided with these qualifications are so flexible, they allow for co-assessment of units in any order or delivery sequence. The RTO can also schedule an assessment in a training kitchen or at a workplace, with the ability to select the recipes that suit. Additionally, practical cooking units include student logbooks to help both the student and assessor keep track of how their dishes are prepared, and how they’re mapped to unit requirements. The RTO can also use a single cooking session to cover multiple unit requirements, using the logbooks to help manage the outcomes. With the ability to choose which units to deliver and assess in groups that suit the RTO’s timetable and modes of delivery, Hospitality Works has the added bonus of keeping down the cost of ingredients by minimising food waste!

Meet the instructional designers

Our experienced team of instructional designers, led by Cathy Grundy, has developed Hospitality Works in partnership with Dominique Bendebiza-Caron. Cathy has decades of experience in the education publishing industry and has been creating resources for the VET sector for over 10 years. Dominique has over 25 years of experience as a chef and instructor, and she is currently a qualified trainer and assessor from Brighton College. For 13 years, she also owned and operated her own successful French/African restaurant in Brisbane! This unique partnership has created a learning and assessment model that will lead to excellent outcomes that prepare students for work. Compliance was paramount for Cathy and Dominique, but so too was developing user-friendly tools for trainers and students.

Use only quality resources

As with all RTO Works material, Hospitality Works is distributed to training providers completely online in a once-off purchase, with unlimited use regardless of student numbers. It’s an affordable way to offer these in-demand qualifications, with the security that comes from a supplier of quality assured and industry-relevant training and assessment resources. Learn more about Hospitality Works, or contact us to add these qualifications to your offerings.

Aubyn Fauteux