Hospitality Skills

Hospitality Course

By Daria Bokovenko

In the last few weeks, all of the students in our year had a wonderful opportunity to complete the “Hospitality Skills Course” with Fiona Dunne. The aim of this course is to provide the opportunity to develop our own natural abilities and understanding of the hospitality industry and to gain experience in catering. It also helps us to explore our creative side and develop confidence in working within the catering industry. Some of the modules that were included in the course are:

Identification of cutlery (setting up the table for different meals),

Carrying plates,

Taking an order ( different systems used in cafes and restaurants )

Serving food and drinks,

Customer Service,

Handling customer complaints.

We staged multiple situations that are the most common complaints in the catering industry, such as a customer being served cold soup or having a glass with some lipstick on it. We found out that through following a system “LAST” (listen, apologise, solve and support), different sorts of issues can be solved. 

The other thing we looked at was how to carry plates. At first we were surprised by how professionally Fiona could do that, but in a matter of thirty minutes of training, it didn’t seem that hard at all anymore. Later on, she also poured some water into them and we had to walk and try not to spill it. And all of us succeeded, no broken plates!

One of the most important parts of this course was that it explained what qualities and skills we need to have in order to get a job. This is really useful, especially for people our age that are looking for work placements all the time. 

After this course, my classmates and I felt much more confident about going to an interview. We now know how to write a CV properly and what to include in it, and how to present it and ourselves in a job interview. We know how to act, and watch our body language. 

The “Hospitality Skills” course is a wonderful, valuable and positive experience that covers numerous different aspects. We have learned tons of new important things and I would feel much more confident now if I was to get a job. This course is something I would highly recommend to everyone.