St Austell Brewery launches chef scholarship

Cornwall-based St Austell Brewery has launched a chef scholarship, with ten apprentices signing up for the course. The budding chefs will receive tuition at the company’s Academy 1851 training centre as well as first-hand experience working with head chefs within the business. At the end of the 12-month scholarship, the apprentices will gain an industry-accredited qualification. The course is being delivered in partnership with HIT Training, the national apprenticeship provider to the hospitality industry. St Austell Brewery learning and development manager Richard Parkes said: “This is so much more than an apprenticeship and, through this training course, we hope to be able to set these students on the path to fantastic careers in the south west. We are looking to embed training and development opportunities throughout our business. Our head chefs recently undertook specialist leadership training so they have the skills to impart their knowledge and experience to those working beneath them as part of a structured in-house career programme.” Paul Mannering, of HIT Training, who is principal of the chef academy, added: “Few employers are offering this kind of opportunity and even fewer at the level St Austell is offering.” St Austell Brewery also plans to launch a full-scale chef academy at the Cat & Fiddle pub near Exeter.