Making Up the Distance Divide in Education
I can count any number of colleagues in my professional life that I don’t envy right now. So many people on the frontlines of foodservice in healthcare and long-term care who are doing incredible work, day-after-day. Most of us are well aware of how much of a staggering marathon this group has endured over the past year.
I put educators in the same boat. For some, it must fall between herding cats and pulling teeth. Not necessarily for college level, but I’m still not sure how you pivot to teach institutional level foodservice like my long-time industry connection, Peter Rick, at Humber
College.
Distance learning is one thing, but this isn’t Jacques Pepin on YouTube cozying up to the camera to share his classic omelette making technique. This is an attempt to teach large scale preparation and management to a disparate group of students – including many international students – and trying to convey the scope, demands and practicalities of this work. What a logistical quandary for someone who is obviously accustomed to teaching by doing and trying to convey the demands of the work.
Fortunately, I get a front row seat on occasion to better appreciate what Peter is up against. Full disclosure – I sit on an industry advisory board with Humber College – but given our enduring connection, I always enjoy the opportunity to present sessions to these students when Peter calls me in.
How We Can Better Serve
I’ve always been a major proponent of helping to bring along the next generation of food professionals and offering whatever insights I’ve learned from this business. Over the past few years, I’ve contributed material to Peter’s curriculum and presented a number of times.
More recently, I’ve started to include videos on LEAN System application in Healthcare Foodservice as well as examples of trending and modern technologies from around the world. The videos are a particularly welcome resource. They not only offer Peter a respite from his daily demands, but it’s giving students a glimpse into the inner workings of our industry. I certainly would’ve appreciated this type of material during those early stages of my career development.
As we continue to build out this collection, I’ve started to develop a more formal offering that I’m currently referring to as Burlodge University or perhaps U of B. I think it’s a prime time to develop accessible materials and make them available to students, clients, staff and any others who want to gain a more incisive look into our operations – especially regarding those key products and systems that these young graduates will be using soon enough. As anyone in the food industry can attest, preparation is essential.
There is No Substitute for Experience
“It’s the stories we tell that have a bigger impact on learning. This will make better managers for the future,” Peter says. “Most students have no prior experience or knowledge of what they’re entering,” he adds. “We can teach them all the theory they want, but there’s a bigger underlying vein of how to go about selecting and purchasing equipment. That’s essential to the course.”
I’ll always contend that lived experience, life in the trenches, the ups and downs and stories that come out of those encounters never lose their relevancy – not for anyone. That’s why mentorship remains such a vital activity in industries such as ours. Some people may still subscribe to the school of hard knocks, learn for yourself and earn the right to sit at the table. I think that’s small and outdated, and ultimately unproductive.
Developing the Whole Professional
Beyond being an industry veteran and a big supporter of getting experienced professionals in front of his classes, Peter also recognizes that there is a multiplicity of ways that we at Burlodge can help across a range of his courses, not just food prep and delivery.
“Financial management, quality management, operation systems, institutional food service production, marketing,” he rhymes them off. It’s important to make clear the extent of expectations that some of these young professionals will have to juggle, even when starting out. He also makes a good (and, albeit amusingly honest) point about the importance of honing these skills early on and laying a great foundation for growth.
“We want to be preparing people to take care of us when we get old,” says Peter. “We want them to be great professionals. And it shouldn’t be solely their responsibility to shoulder that load.”
So, while we may be faced with uncommon times for teaching and learning at the moment, educators like Peter Rick remind us that these connections between industry and students should only grow stronger. And there’s room to grow. All of us have something to share with improving the way our profession operates and by offering our assistance now, we’re setting the table for excellence to thrive for years to come.
