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Key details

Course type
Full-time Further Education course
Course level
Level 2
Start date
Tuesday 1st September 2026
Location
City Hub 111 Canal Street, Nottingham, NG1 7HB
Course code
Parent course code:C027393 Child course code: Q024739

Course introduction

This course is perfect if you’re aged 19+ and you love the buzz of being in a kitchen and creating tasty and inspiring dishes.

You’ll turn your passion into a career with this, which is designed to turn you into a professional cook.

You’ll learn how to plan and prepare different meals on a large scale, how to cook meat, fish, poultry, soups, salads and pastry dishes, and you’ll do so whilst ensuring your kitchen is a safe working environment.

You can expect to put your skills to the test in a real working environment. You’ll work with a range of industry-standard kitchen equipment and get plenty of practical cooking experience, including experience cooking for a range of customers. We’ll help you secure work experience to give you a greater insight into our developing, exciting industry.

Course information

1 year

City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma in Culinary Skills

You will need either a relevant Level 1 catering qualification and/or relevant industry experience.

Timed practical assessments and short answer questions.

Choose to follow with further study at Nottingham College on either our Level 3 NVQ Professional Cookery Diploma or Level 3 Advanced Professional Cookery Diploma. Alternatively, you could go onto an apprenticeship in a local or national restaurant.

You will need to purchase a uniform and knife set at approximately £200.

You may be eligible for funding for this course. Check out our Financial Help pages to find out more!

If you are an EU/EEA or Swiss National, please visit our EU Settled Status scheme page for more information.

Select career:

Chefs

Potential Earnings

£34,841.52

Average Earnings

£23,154.99

Source: Office for National Statistics' Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

Pathways

Accommodation, Travel and Food Services

People in these occupations provide lodging, travel, and tourism support services and prepare and serve food and beverages.

Skills

Monitoring

Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Critical Thinking

Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Active Learning

Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Learning Strategies

Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.

Speaking

Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Economic data for careers is provided by Lightcast and also available through our Career Coach app. Job postings, employment and earnings information is represented at the regional level for the East Midlands.