This college is financed by JICA, a Japanese initiative in southern Sudan aimed at promotion of vocational and life skills’ development.
The methodology I used in the kitchen was basically observations and a dialogue with the heads of departments. The major aim of doing this was to find out how the learners were being incorporated in the work of the kitchen since it is a part of their training.
There was a basic emphasis on food hygiene, safety in the kitchen, life skills for women, kitchen hygiene and disinfection of utensils using sanitizers and disinfectants, food costing (accountability and prevention of wastage by taking the right measures), food spoilage and safety using food thermometers as well as handling and cooking of different foods.
The students are taught both theory and practical but their greatest emphasis is on practical. The instructors were of Kenyan origin and met communication challenges with their students. Most of them couldn’t express themselves in English or even put it on paper.
The chef and his assistant from Kenya said that they use demonstrations and signs when communicating to the different students to solve the problem of language barrier. They also use fellow students to act as translators to their colleagues who may not understand English as a language of instruction.
There are also challenges of family responsibilities, weather changes and anger since most of their employees are internally displaced people.
As a characteristic of work place learning, emphasis is put on production and not learning. The students therefore need a lot of follow-up, remainders, inspiration and patience.
The hotel’s kitchen is divided into the main kitchen and the small kitchen. The main kitchen has several departments which include; the grilling or roasting department, butchery department, pastry department, vegetable department and the overall hygiene department. This kitchen also has the food cooling compartments to ensure that the quality of the food is maintained to ensure food safety.
The small kitchen is used for fast foods like fries, omelets among others.
The chef continued to explain that they go out in the field to assess what their customers like. To attain this, they usually design questionnaires to assess the food tastes and preferences of their customers as most them stay at the camp for a relatively long time.
As a result of this assessment, they have different nights to reduce on the monotony of their meals and do away with the common buffet service that is, Tuesday is carving night, Wednesday is pasta night, Thursday is Mongolian night, Friday is Mexican night, Saturday is a barbeque and Sunday is a brunch meal instead of a buffet. This is done basically to attract customers and to cater for their needs.
He further explained that the students are rotated throughout the different departments of the kitchen to ensure that they acquire and practice the skills associated to each. As a business center, this leads to maximum productivity since it takes a relatively long time. This may however affect work efficiency.
The fuels used in the kitchen include firewood charcoal, gas and electricity. Charcoal and firewood are however the commonest since they are cheaper than the rest.
In my observation, there seemed to be more females than males in the kitchen with a ratio of 2:1. Most of the females however were in the cleaning department.
The heads of department were all foreigners in the country much as the kitchen had many Sudanese in general.
The heads of departments were working with the different students assigned to their departments. This was promoting learning in a way that the students would observe how their heads were handling different things and would learn from that.
The chefs of the kitchen would move through out the different departments to ensure that the work is coordinated well. I also noticed that the aspects of hygiene and safety in the kitchen were well catered for. The students and other members of the kitchen had white clean aprons, head gears and closed shoes.
The methodology I used in the kitchen was basically observations and a dialogue with the heads of departments. The major aim of doing this was to find out how the learners were being incorporated in the work of the kitchen since it is a part of their training.
There was a basic emphasis on food hygiene, safety in the kitchen, life skills for women, kitchen hygiene and disinfection of utensils using sanitizers and disinfectants, food costing (accountability and prevention of wastage by taking the right measures), food spoilage and safety using food thermometers as well as handling and cooking of different foods.
The students are taught both theory and practical but their greatest emphasis is on practical. The instructors were of Kenyan origin and met communication challenges with their students. Most of them couldn’t express themselves in English or even put it on paper.
The chef and his assistant from Kenya said that they use demonstrations and signs when communicating to the different students to solve the problem of language barrier. They also use fellow students to act as translators to their colleagues who may not understand English as a language of instruction.
There are also challenges of family responsibilities, weather changes and anger since most of their employees are internally displaced people.
As a characteristic of work place learning, emphasis is put on production and not learning. The students therefore need a lot of follow-up, remainders, inspiration and patience.
The hotel’s kitchen is divided into the main kitchen and the small kitchen. The main kitchen has several departments which include; the grilling or roasting department, butchery department, pastry department, vegetable department and the overall hygiene department. This kitchen also has the food cooling compartments to ensure that the quality of the food is maintained to ensure food safety.
The small kitchen is used for fast foods like fries, omelets among others.
The chef continued to explain that they go out in the field to assess what their customers like. To attain this, they usually design questionnaires to assess the food tastes and preferences of their customers as most them stay at the camp for a relatively long time.
As a result of this assessment, they have different nights to reduce on the monotony of their meals and do away with the common buffet service that is, Tuesday is carving night, Wednesday is pasta night, Thursday is Mongolian night, Friday is Mexican night, Saturday is a barbeque and Sunday is a brunch meal instead of a buffet. This is done basically to attract customers and to cater for their needs.
He further explained that the students are rotated throughout the different departments of the kitchen to ensure that they acquire and practice the skills associated to each. As a business center, this leads to maximum productivity since it takes a relatively long time. This may however affect work efficiency.
The fuels used in the kitchen include firewood charcoal, gas and electricity. Charcoal and firewood are however the commonest since they are cheaper than the rest.
In my observation, there seemed to be more females than males in the kitchen with a ratio of 2:1. Most of the females however were in the cleaning department.
The heads of department were all foreigners in the country much as the kitchen had many Sudanese in general.
The heads of departments were working with the different students assigned to their departments. This was promoting learning in a way that the students would observe how their heads were handling different things and would learn from that.
The chefs of the kitchen would move through out the different departments to ensure that the work is coordinated well. I also noticed that the aspects of hygiene and safety in the kitchen were well catered for. The students and other members of the kitchen had white clean aprons, head gears and closed shoes.
