Chef Academy - Level 2 & 3 Chef Apprenticeships
Innovative training for the culinary stars of the future.
Take your first steps in your career as a chef and join The Chef Academy at Brend Hotels and HIT Training. A chef apprenticeship with The Brend Training Academy offers the highest quality training, development and learning in the industry.
Apprentices will be based in one of our eleven professional hotel kitchens in North Devon, South Devon or Cornwall. With the help of senior chefs and a tutor, they will build your knowledge, skills and confidence through a recognised qualification. The dedicated tutor will be via a mixture of on-site visits, phone calls and zoom meetings (not just on site visits). On completion, we aim to offer a permanent position at one of our hotels or restaurants in the south west.
Chefs at all levels and ages can gain new skills with the apprenticeships. Our professional apprenticeships involve on-site learning and assessment paired with e-learning and assignments. Apprentices can also expect frequent on-site visits by our industry-experienced chef trainers.
In addition to the chef apprenticeship training schedule, students will be invited to attend additional programmes to enhance their training journey which include:
- Kitchen management - Covering all aspects of managing people, administration, and the kitchen environment.
- Nutrition training - How to create dishes to meet your customers’ special needs, allergies and dietary requirements.
- Fresh product procurement - Apprentices will work with fresh local produce during their workshops and skills taught will be used back in their workplace.
- Enter competitions - We encourage our chef apprentices to enter culinary competitions and we also run our own Brend Chef Academy Competition.
- Chef demonstrations - Take part in demonstrations at food fairs and festivals.
- Culinary masterclasses - Expert trainers will demonstrate how to prepare and cook complex dishes and dishes required in ‘fine dining’ kitchens. They will also teach you about refining flavours and enhancing your knife skills.
Reasons to join the Brend Training Academy as an apprentice chef:
- Take part in bi-monthly practical cookery sessions with our best chefs and HIT chef trainers
- Receive a competitive starting rate of pay: £200pw & company benefits
- Have support from an award-winning training provider: HIT Training
- Provided with regular reviews, support and feedback
- 10% discount around our hotels and restaurants
- Invited to team events and competitions
- Access to our Employee Assistance Programme supported by Hospitality Action, our leading industry charity
What students will do as an apprentice chef:
- Learning and developing new skills within the kitchen
- Developing food knowledge by taking part in tastings with the head chef
- Preparing food to the company’s high standards, learning about the responsibilities required to ensure that quality and consistency is achieved
- Looking after stock – security, rotation and stock levels
- Preparing for/attending practical learning sessions
- Keeping a diary to record development of knowledge and skills
- Demonstrating commitment to your apprenticeship programme
- Working as part of a team and developing interpersonal skills
Entry requirements
- GCSE grade 4 and above is desirable in English and Maths
- Aged 16+
- A passion to work within the hospitality industry
- Must not be taking part in full-time education
- A UK resident or have the right to work in the UK
When can I start?
The Brend Training Academy takes applications all year round and will endeavour to find a position for you ASAP. Also, please see our current apprenticeship vacancies ready for immediate start.
How do I apply?
Visit our Careers page for a specific vacancy and search for apprenticeships by region. Alternatively, visit our online recruitment system to add your speculative application. If you have any questions about the Chef Academy or any apprenticeship programmes, please email Stella at [email protected].