Southeast has big school-to-career momentum JACK HAYES

Nation's Restaurant News, July 20, 1998 by Jack Hayes

"The Southeast is showing real momentum and motivation -- it is really moving forward in school-to-career partnerships," said Hospitality Business Alliance spokeswoman Ellen Nash.

The Chicago-based HBA, an educational partnership between the National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel and Motel Association, is helping forge the necessary training and job site links between high schools and operators across the nation.

According to Nash, more than 50 students in Georgia have gone from the classroom to the workplace via internships. Georgia hospitality teachers also are studying foodservice management to augment their school-to-work curricula. The NBA also is guiding the startup of a statewide school-to-work effort in Alabama.

One of the latest restaurant industry school-to-work efforts in our region -- completed just last week -- involved the Florida Restaurant Association, chef instructors from Johnson & Wales University in North Miami and 55 high-school teachers from across the state.

Gathering at the J&W campus in south Florida, the teachers were given some statistics on the dollar power of the state's foodservice industry, which employs more than 500,000, creating an economic impact that exceeds $15 billion.

The intensive five-day program, paid for by grants and FRA funds, gave teachers some education in commercial kitchen equipment and principles of sanitation as well as menu planning based on the NRA's ProStart curriculum. There was even a welcome from FRA president Kim Avery, who operates Fort Myers, Ha-based South Seas Resort Catering. Ten teachers from Georgia also took part in that program, according to FRA education director Chip Bone.

"Career awareness is one of the important goals of the school-to-work movement," Bone said. "It's about letting students know how badly we need them -- and telling them about the occupations this industry offers."

The FRA's school-to-work effort, which will bring 60 high schools on line with ProStart curricula this fall, gives Florida possibly the largest school-to-career network in the nation, Bone believes.

That is no surprise when one considers the state's dominance as an international tourist destination.

"There's a minimum of 40,000 hospitality job openings between Walt Disney World, SeaWorld and Universal Studios alone," Bone said. "Not all of these are food and beverage positions, but the need is great in our industry."

Earlier this year restaurant and hotel operators from Florida and Georgia became "career mentors" to high-school interns during the nation's first annual Groundhog Job Shadow Day.

In that effort, which paired an estimated 140,000 students from across the nation with workplace mentors from dozens of industries, the Georgia Hospitality Education Project brought 95 students from eight high schools in metro Atlanta face-to-face with operators at Churchs Chicken, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Houston's, Peasant Restaurants and On The Border.

Coleman Goodrich, the general manager at Houston's in suburban Cobb County, said his restaurant made an actual job offer that was accepted by one of the visiting students that day. "We are really impressed by the level of talent," he said.

Atlanta-based AFC Enterprises hired some 18 students for nine of its Churchs and Popeyes locations matching each one with a mentor in a 12-week intern ship, according to Lee Channell, senior vice president of people services development.