Organised by Springboard charity, the ‘World Host Hospitality’ initiative saw 10 young offenders learn traditional kitchen work from Elior chefs Amber Mason and Chris Shanks, and development chef Iain Williams.
Covering skills such as preparing veg for crudités, being runners for the food and learning the right body language for front-of-house service, Elior then challenged them to a series of cooking competitions. The attendees also had to prepare and serve food to a 70-cover conference.
Following the success of this year’s training, the Scottish Prison Service will be rolling out ‘World Host Hospitality’ across the country, with service chief Colin McConnell, commenting: “The course was an outstanding example of the value of the human touch.
“The event was a masterclass in leadership, organisation and buy-in, and the smiles, energy and positivity from everyone involved was infectious and compelling. Everyone I spoke with was, to put it simply, blown away.”
Elior chef Williams – who has helped with the training for the last three years - added: “The course is incredible and seeing the reaction from all the delegates at an international symposium on youth offending this year was something I’ll never forget.
“But the best sign is that we’ve already had a couple of attendees from previous courses hired as general assistants in the industry.
“These are full-time jobs that they have secured directly because of the training on this course.
“We are hopeful the training will be rolled to other establishments out across the rest of Scotland.”