Nine students learn for ten weeks how to make coffee and shake cocktails. Lise Deboot is one of them: “I actually did social work. But then I realized that I would rather do something with my hands. Then I thought: what is really social but also working with my hands. Working in the catering industry, of course. This is really the suitable training for myself.”
Hospitality industry begs for staff
And catering operators will be only too happy to hear this, because they are begging for well-trained staff who will also be employed permanently and for a long time. There are now 264 vacancies in the Bruges region alone. Joris Rutsaert, Horeca Forma Vlaanderen: “Will these nine have work soon? There are many vacancies at the moment, but it is of course up to them. They have now been given the basics, now they have to prove themselves in the Bruges catering industry for three weeks. I certainly hope that they can start smoothly, in any case they have received a good package to carry out their job in the catering industry.”
The students must therefore first complete a few weeks of internship in a real catering business.