ASEAN Hospitality: CAVC serving up skills excellence
ASEAN Hospitality: Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) reaches out to potential partners and customers to offer innovative learning, teaching and skills training solutions across the ASEAN region. CAVC’s goal is to promote the global imperative of TVET in creating productive and sustainable regional economies.
As a large Further Education College offering programmes from Level 2 to Level 6 across a wide range of vocational, professional and academic areas, we have the scale and expertise to add value to the overseas TVET agenda. The importance of TVET and skills is reflected in our international strategy and the opportunity to meet and network with stakeholders, decision makers and students from ASEAN would be a delight for us.
Cardiff and Vale College, part of the Colleges Wales International network, provides world-class catering and hospitality skills and training provision to students of all ages.
CAVC have a range of performance and skills development tools at their disposal that quickly evaluate training needs around skills training. They are highly responsive to the commercial needs of industry.
The CAVC and international team are to support the important administration and management requirements that underpin high-quality educational delivery.
Our mission at CAVC is to transform lives by enabling learners to develop skills and reach their potential.
Challenges for the hospitality and catering sector are plain to see across the world as the pandemic causes chaos and disruption to ‘business as usual’.
Indeed, in their paper on the impact of Covid-19 on the ASEAN tourism industry, Beh and Leong Lin (2021) reported that the pandemic could place 100-120 million jobs at risk in the international tourism sector, one of the main contributors to the economy of ASEAN countries.
This global emergency has compounded a problem that was already beginning to cause ripples in the sector – the issue of skill shortages. For example, as far back as 2001, the Asia Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) reported technical skill shortages in the Phillippines economy. They attributed this to a sub-optimal education system, dissonant export policy and the relentless pace of change driven by technological advancement. The same charge can be levelled at many other countries around the world as they apply to their national TVET strategies. More recently, the City and Guilds Group noted skills gaps in the hospitality and catering sector, as well as a shortage of qualified trainers across ASEAN.
There are growing signs that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is has an improved status and acceptance, aided by Government reforms, including in the UK, and a recognition that a solid skills base provides the underpinning for successful modern economies.
These conditions provides a fertile environment for mature and creative TVET providers such as CAVC, with a history steeped in vocational education and skills training, to rise to the challenge to accelerate global skilling, upskilling and re-skilling.
The CAVC leadership team now use its training infrastructure, capacity and capability to support and influence skills training in the ASEAN region.
The CAVC catering and hospitality provision is continually innovating and re-imagining the future of the sector. Its skills solutions are flexible and tailored to the specific requirements of customers.
Underpinned and informed by the work of several structures, CAVC’s Catering, Hospitality and Tourism Employer Board, composed of CAVC staff and a group of organisations and employers operating in the real economy with a deep understanding of market, producer and consumer needs and wants. The Board directly supports curriculum design, facilitates and sponsors work placements, creates progression opportunities for students, and helps to ensure students are fully prepared to meet current and future employer needs.
CAVC’s catering and hospitality provision is particularly well served by the College’s own restaurant called Y Dosbarth (The Classroom). This unique venue training restaurant, operating as it does as a stand-alone commercial venture that is staffed by industry practitioners with a wealth of experience. This includes expertise from Michelin and AA Rosette establishments, who work in the college restaurant, whilst overseeing the training of future culinary talent.
CAVC use Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) to inform its curriculum and to ensure that its provision meets the needs of individuals, employers and the economy. LMI is core to its curriculum planning with data sourced at both a macro and micro level. In addition, CAVC use an economic modelling tool to map local, demographic, and occupational and industry data to its planning cycle.
The Employer Board, the Classroom Restaurant and CAVC’s proactive use of LMI all combined, provide the foundation for CAVC to build and customise market solutions, interventions, products and services to enhance the catering and hospitality industry, culminating in us securing People1st Centre of Excellence accreditation for hospitality, patisserie and confectionary in 2016.
For potential partners and clients in ASEAN, CAVC supplements excellence of technical training coupled with specialist English language teaching across all levels from beginner to advanced and delivered in a contextualised way.
CAVC’s training philosophy centres on a ‘field to plate’, holistic methodology. Training includes visits to producers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in order that students understand the importance and diversity of the supply chain and the processes involved in producing quality products and services, whilst maintaining the highest quality and welfare standards, lowering the carbon footprint and reducing waste. Examples of visits include trips to the world famous Penderyn whisky distillery.
CAVC are passionate about taking these solutions, adapting and applying them to ASEAN contexts. From train the trainer programmes, to skills consultancy, and short bespoke courses, including professional cookery, bakery, patisserie and confectionary, food hygiene, safety and preparation, allergy protection and awareness, and hospitality management. These can be delivered both on-line and in face to face formats, abroad or in the UK.
CAVC will soon have its very own training hotel located in the heart of Cardiff city, which will be used to further give our learners a fully authentic training experience in real world contexts.
CAVC’s CAVC were selected as the lead partner in the British Council’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office funded I-WORK programme (Improving Work Opportunities – Relaying Knowledge).
Working with selected partners in four other countries including Malaysia, this project addressed the ‘Fairer Future’ theme of the Commonwealth Summit, with emphasis on promoting the interests of 60% of the Commonwealth’s population under 25 years of age.
CAVC’s skills activity within this project resulted in increased capacity building in employer-led inclusive education practice and the development of a framework for establishing Employer Advisory Boards in key sectors.
Having seen first-hand the way in which their UK partner, Coleg Y Cymoedd, has positioned itself both as a training provider and social partner to local employers as well as to the community a whole, Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara Kuala Langat (IKBNKL), has determined to replicate the model, adapting it to the needs of its local partners, providers and people.
Through bringing employers, students and local people together, the college is well on its way towards its goal of establishing IKBN as a one-stop shop for apprenticeships, and a trusted partner for companies and the community. IKBNKL is by no means alone when it comes to piloting new practice.
17-year old learner Ieuan Jones, studied Level 2 and 3 Hospitality at CAVC, with a dream of becoming a Michelin star chef. Ieuan was identified very early on by CAVC practitioners as not only having natural talent in the kitchen, but also the drive, determination and dedication to succeed.
With this raw talent, wrap around support, and exposure to the progressive CAVC skills training philosophy, Ieuan went on to become CAVC overall Learner of the Year Award winner in 2020. Supported by the CAVC hospitality team, he also represented CAVC and Wales at the Young Chef Olympiad in India in January 2020 and won Best Dessert category, putting Wales and CAVC on the world catering and hospitality skills training map. In this global skills competition, Ieuan competed against young chefs from 55 other countries and his ‘pear bourdalou with sauce anglaise’ was deemed by the judges to be the Best Dessert Creation overall.
The power of vocational training on young lives is summed up elegantly by Ieuan in his own words:
‘I was very proud to represent my country and very happy with this achievement. Going to the Young Chef Olympiad was definitely a life-changing experience. I’ve never been to India and it opened my eyes to different styles of cuisine out there. It has definitely helped me and made me want to strive to be far better in future and made me want to make a name for myself and be recognised in the industry.’
There is no doubt that Ieuan has all the personal and innate qualities that underpin achievement. But he recognised that you need more than this to win a global competition. You need infrastructure, expert practitioners and trainers, personalised learning support and you need to be immersed in a culture of achievement, all of which are characteristics embodied by the CAVC catering and hospitality provision. CAVC are very proud of Ieuan and all of its students. CAVC is extremely proud of its catering and hospitality team who understand the importance of getting both the fundamentals and the detail right to add value at every step of the learner journey.
