NVQ Business and Administration Students Display their Culinary Skills on their Enrichment Programme

Mark’s cooking adventure

Hello I am doing a NVQ Level 1 in Business administration at Lewisham College. I am enjoying the course so far and hope to gain a qualification at the end of my course.

Recently I took part in an enrichment class doing cooking at the college and that involved cutting up onions, carrots, preparing vegetable, browning the mince and doing a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise.

I found it quite easy to do because I do cooking at home and I like doing spaghetti bolognaise when I am hungry and also it is good for your health and gives you a lot of energy. Also it is better then going out and getting a take away every time which it is bad for your health.

It was my first time doing cooking it at my college and it was a worthy and good experience because I learnt how to cook with different Ingredients and which I had never done before.

Also I feel that the college should do these types of experiment for younger students and foreign students in the college because it will help them in the future to cook different types of food. It will also give you more confidence cooking different types of food and using different ingredients. It only takes practice the more practice you have the better cooker you will be and also you will be able to cook for family and friends.

Becky’s Cooking Adventure

In our Business Administration class there is a group called the Enrichment class which consists of a mixture of boys and girls aged 16 to 18. We had a cooking adventure to do. Our adventure was to cook a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise from scratch as you can see in the pictures.

All the ingredients were bought by our tutor Sue and we had to pick out what ingredients we wanted to use. We were not allowed to use the sauce mixture that you get from the shops.

At first we chopped and cooked the vegetables, we added the garlic and mince meat. We then made the sauce which was tomato puree and water, including peppers and onion if we wished to. We then cooked the spaghetti once that was done, put the mince and spaghetti into a container and added parmesan cheese.

For me, the cooking experience was strange as I have never cooked a meal in my life - so it was a great way of learning how to cook because I had all my friends around me to help and now know how to cook spaghetti bolognaise!

When is a Student no a Student? When they are a Trainee!

Why are some students walking around the college dressed like they are going to a high-powered business meeting? Do they do it because they wake up in the morning and decide that it is a good day to ‘power dress’? Probably not! For an explanation, The Biscuit turns to one of the SKILLS4IT students, Jack Butler for an answer!

So you want to know why there are some students who are wearing shirts and ties huh? Well I guess I can tell you, you seem trustful. You see these students aren’t students at all they are actually trainees. Now the difference is that the trainees are representing the college not only inside the college but also outside the college.

The trainees are always required to wear a shirt and tie because their ‘uniform’ is business wear. They will be sent on work placements where they will be able to get a taste of what the world of business will be like. When they get there, they will not be able to dress down, like the vast majority of students. They will have to wear business clothes. So, in appearance you can tell the difference between a student and a trainee straight away!

One of the courses that has trainees rather than students is SKILLS4IT which is for 16-18 year olds who would like to work in the field of IT. Whether it is computer engineering or administrative work, this course trains them up to be qualified for these purposes.

The course is 18 months long and has a total of 6 months and 2 weeks of work placements with a company that has it and also schools such as Lewisham College which does take on these trainees for work placements.

The work placements come in two sections, the first section is 2 weeks long and the second section is 6 months long and sometimes the business or school has thought that the trainee was so good and hard working that they offer the trainee a permanent placement at their workplace. This has happened a number of times at LC – some of the younger IT Support staff that you see around the college started on the SKILLS4IT course. A lot of students have managed to get jobs on their external work placements too.

Paul Herbert, who runs the course, says, “This course is designed to play an important part in your future, by contributing to your education and providing a basis from which to establish a successful career.”

So, there you have it – the explanation why some students roam the college looking like they mean business! It is because they do!