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Key details

Course area
Catering and Hospitality
Student types
16 - 18 coursesCourses for 19+ students
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:C000227 Child course code: Q001339
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Course introduction

This course is perfect if you’ve got a passion and a flair for cooking and want to apply your skills in a professional kitchen as a chef or work in the restaurant front of house.

You’ll learn about menu planning, kitchen organisation, health and safety, food theory, food and ingredient pricing, plus a range of professional cookery skills for cooking meat and fish, pastry dishes, soups, salads and more. You will also develop waitering, barista and bar skills towards a Food and Beverage Certificate. Visits from our industry supporters such as Marco Pierre White, Dan Burridge and Alex Bond may be on the cards too.

You can expect to learn in our brand new commercial restaurant in the heart of Nottingham at our City Hub campus. You’ll get to invent and create your own menu plans, but we make sure you get plenty of practical cooking and restaurant time too.

A group of people standing around a banner stating 'Nottingham College - you're in good hands'.

You will be encouraged to participate in a 30-hour work placement while you are studying.

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Course information

1 year

Professional Chef Level 2 City & Guilds Diploma

You’ll need 4 GCSEs at grades 3-9 (D-A*), including English Language and Maths – one of English Language or Maths must be grade 4-9 (C-A*). You must also have relevant industry experience or a suitable Level 1 Catering qualification

You will be assessed through practical tests and written assignments.

Choose to follow with our Advanced Level 3 Diploma in Professional Cookery, or our Hospitality Supervision and Leadership programme, or you could move into an apprenticeship with one of the many award-winning restaurants we work with.

Students aged 16-18 don't have to pay tuition fees.

If you are aged 19 or over you may still be eligible for funding. 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.

Meet Grace - learn how an apprenticeship in a restaurant helped her career goals

Careers related to this course

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.
View more about this career

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.

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