News: Street Food Academy Launches
Over the past three years our catering department have been working with the Nottingham Street Food Club on an exciting partnership and have set up the Nottingham Street Food Academy.
The Street Food Academy gives our catering students, who have an interest in street food, the opportunity to pitch a business idea for a street food outlet to Phil Tomlinson (Faculty Area Manager for Catering and Hospitality) and representatives from the Nottingham Street Food Club. The students will the winning pitch and most viable business proposal will then be mentored by a local street food business owner and have the opportunity to become a vendor at the Victoria Centre Street Food site.
Following the pandemic, street food and alfresco dining has soared in popularity and new industry trends are emerging all the time. We hope, by launching this academy we can help our students prepare for the vast array of career options out there in the catering and hospitality industries.
— Faculty Area Manager– Catering & Hospitality, Tourism & Aviation.
At the start of the year our first cohort of students pitched their business to the Street Food Academy and a winning idea was chosen.
Level 2 Culinary Diploma Student Leonie Buckley, who successfully pitched her idea is now under the mentorship of Jessica Pycroft, one of the owners of ‘Dirty Chicken’ who are regular attendees at food pop-ups across Nottingham and have a stall in Victoria Centre as part of the Street Food Club.
Leonie and her classmates will gain invaluable industry experience which will include writing business plans, creating branding and applying for funding.
I am so excited to start at the Nottingham Street Food Academy. The college and Jessica have given me an amazing opportunity to gain knowledge and experience first-hand about how an independent business runs. I can’t wait to get stuck in!
— Leonie Buckley — Level 2 Culinary Diploma student
As we are still quite early in our career, it’s great showing someone everything it takes to create a successful business and how it can be achieved in a relatively quick time. Being a mentor allows us to share the highs and lows we’ve experienced and ways that you can avoid them. Having someone who is keen and who wants to learn the trade will be a huge benefit to the business and hopefully we are able to give Leoni information and advice that she can take to her future career.
— Jessica and James Pycroft — ‘Dirty Chicken’ Owners
Catering and Hospitality courses at Nottingham College
Catering and hospitality qualifications can take you all over the world, and we will help prepare you for an exciting career. Many of our students go onto a wide range of fantastic global career opportunities, made possible with our industry-recognised qualifications and you’ll have the opportunity to train at our brand new restaurant at the City Hub campus.
Published on:
- 22nd March 2022 (10:43 AM)
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