Training programs feed R.I. eateries

SOMETHING COOKING: According to the Amos House, its Culinary Education Program has provided 318 people with training over the last 11 years. Pictured above are program students, from left, Nathan Williams, Emily Calderon and Tilmon Evans. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
SOMETHING COOKING: According to the Amos House, its Culinary Education Program has provided 318 people with training over the last 11 years. Pictured above are program students, from left, Nathan Williams, Emily Calderon and Tilmon Evans. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Just a year ago, Stephanie Hebert was a long-term unemployed woman in her mid-20s without a college education or high school diploma – exactly the population at risk for chronic joblessness and public-assistance dependence.
But Hebert was determined not to have that happen and today she has her GED and is employed at an Uno Chicago Grill in Smithfield as a line cook, a profession she previously never considered.
Her turning point was a chance encounter with a staff member at Connecting for Children and Families and embracing an opportunity to take part in that organization’s Culinary Arts Program that seeks to provide the unemployed and under-employed with a strong set of practical and soft skills to meet the culinary industry’s employment demands.
The Governor’s Workforce Board recently awarded Connecting Children & Families a $168,366 Innovative Partnership grant that will allow program expansion. The board made a similar award to Amos House of Providence, a nonprofit social services agency, with a $145,282 grant to expand a culinary training program that has run there since 2002.
“Hospitality is one of the industry sectors that the Governor’s Workforce Board has identified as high-growth. If we were going to provide relevant programs we wanted to ensure they were high-demand industries,” Connecting for Children Director Heidi Collins said. “And that we are training [people] with skills that employers are often saying they can’t find to fill positions.”
The R.I. Department of Labor and Training labor-market information predicted an approximate 17 percent growth in restaurant-cook positions between 2010 and 2020. It has predicated just under 10 percent job growth in short-order cooks, an 18.4 percent growth in institution- and cafeteria-cook positions, a 9.4 percent growth in food-batch makers, about a 7.1 percent growth in food-preparation workers, and a 17 percent growth in nonrestaurant food servers.
For Hebert, the Connecting Children for Families program has been a lifesaver.
“I don’t even know if I’d have a job at this point,” she said. “I was unemployed for so long, and I feel like the program helped me get a job. … I learned nice skills.”
Connecting Children for Families, a Woonsocket nonprofit that focuses on improving the quality of family and community life, began the culinary-training program in March 2011 as part of its Center for Financial Success. The center, according to Collins, was founded in September 2010 as an area of the nonprofit dedicated to providing services to help Rhode Islanders move toward the economic mainstream by instilling self-sufficiency.
Much of the debate in Rhode Island around the so-called skills gap that many blame for a disparity between unemployed residents and available jobs focuses on middle-skill jobs, professional positions that don’t necessarily require a four-year degree but do require a high school diploma and specialized training.
Many food-service jobs would classify as low-skill, which the National Skills Coalition predicts will make up 24 percent of jobs in 2018.
Employers with available jobs at all levels, however, complain largely about a lack of well-developed soft skills, such as communication, professional presentation and stress management among applicants.
Restaurant positions can be especially vulnerable to this because of a high turnover rate for workers who may start in the back of the kitchen but, through on-the-job experience and skill-building, move on to higher-profile positions.
“The call we get the most is asking to find people who can work in the kitchen. It’s so labor intensive,” said Dale Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. “There are so many different positions. It’s been that way since I’ve been here. The demand has just been there.”
The Connecting for Children program, according to Collins, has a 90 percent completion rate. Of those who have received program certification, 70 percent have obtained employment.
The Amos House program has provided 318 men and women with training over the last 11 years. Eileen Hayes, president and CEO, said about 60 to 65 percent of participants find employment following the program.
“When we started our program, we were predominantly looking to work with men and women who were coming through our agency for addiction, homelessness, incarceration or other restrictions facing employment,” Hayes said. “[Culinary] is a forgiving industry for folks who have barriers. We continue to primarily target those folks, but since the recession, we’ve had more and more people.” Amos House will use its Innovative Partnership Grant to expand the program from 12- to 18-week cycles and include a six-week paid internship.
Connecting for Children and Families, which also runs a health care career orientation and will launch programs in bookkeeping and accounting, will use its grant to help form the Culinary Arts Collaborative of Northern Rhode Island for intensive industry partnerships, including with the Rhode Island Hospitality Education Foundation. Collaborative partners will provide input and oversight on the training program.
The foundation will train participants in its First Impressions credential, which is an industry-recognized credential.
“We provide training on team building, time management, and conflict resolution. We talk about attendance and first impressions and getting them ready for the workplace,” said Collins. “[Collaborations] will bring our program to the next level. [They will] assure that this program is a model that’s going to meet the needs of unskilled potential employees and partners who are looking for skilled workers.”
David Lahousse, owner of The Lodge Pub in Lincoln and Kay’s Restaurant in Woonsocket, is a partner with the hospitality association on the innovations grants.
Though he rarely has job openings, he feels being a community partner is important to help the under-employed and unemployed learn a new skill and profession.
“They’re getting retrained. These programs are great,” Lahousse said. “You’re taking people who don’t know the restaurant business and teaching them all avenues of it. There’s nothing better than hands-on [training].”
Bob Bacon, owner of Gregg’s restaurants, doesn’t know if there is a shortage of available restaurant workers but agrees that employers can have a difficult time finding employees with strong soft skills, especially when talking about low-skill positions.
“At times there seems to be a lack of people who have good work habits and ethics,” Bacon said. “As with anything else, if you keep looking, you stumble on good ones. But you do have to look hard.” •

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