ProStart NewsBites June 2021

Great Florida Job

Florida’s hospitality industry is facing a labor shortage that is unprecedented.  Our hotels and restaurants in Florida are looking for students to work after school and throughout the summer to help alleviate the shortage. FRLA has built GreatFloridaJob.com to assist employers and job seekers in filling and finding jobs.  Working in the hospitality industry is an exciting and challenging career, and we are hoping to get our industry fully employed via this website!

We are asking that you share this information with your students. Please feel free to distribute not only to your students but also to anyone that might be interested.

Also, if your role at the school is not year-round, please consider stepping into the industry as well!

Click here to watch a quick video with a current ProStart student!

PRINTABLE FLYER

VISIT GREAT FLORIDA JOB DOT COM NOW!


ProStart Teacher Training Institute

We look forward to seeing all confirmed Teacher Training attendees on June 22 at Keiser University Sarasota campus. The agenda was sent out in May. If you did not receive it, please let us know.

If you have attended Teacher Training before, please remember to bring your knife kit with you. All first-time attendees will receive a knife kit.

Let us know if you have any questions about the event!

 


Three ProStart Positions Open

DELAND HIGH SCHOOL:  To apply click on the link below or contact Human Resources for more info.

https://www.vcsedu.org/employment

Employment | Volusia County Schools

Rachel Hazel Human Resources Director Email: RBHAZEL@volusia.k12.fl.us Phone: (386) 734-7190 ext. 20318: Phone: (386) 734-7190 ext. 20090 and select #1 for applications

CRYSTAL RIVER HIGH SCHOOL: Go to citrusschools.org to apply.

MARTIN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL: interim culinary position open for the 2021-2022 school year. If you are interested, please contact Shaun Southwick at southws@martinschools.org.


ProStart Teacher Created YouTube Videos for ServSafe Training

Christopher Bates, ProStart teacher at Wekiva High School, has created several videos on YouTube that sync up with ServSafe chapters. His intention is to give students learning from home some online content that would interest them.

Check out the videos HERE.


Culinary Skills & Education Summit at JWU

Johnson & Wales University (JWU) Charlotte campus is hosting an in-person workshop for culinary teachers July 26-July 28. The registration deadline is June 30. Contact Mandy Hines for more information at mandy.hines@jwu.edu.

FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER CLICK HERE


Coast Guard Bonus for Culinary Careers

 

 

 

 

 

Click on picture to enlarge.


CAPE List

As you know, the ProStart Certificate of Achievement will be removed from DOE’s CAPE funding list at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.  ServSafe remains on DOE’s CAPE funding list.  Historically, ProStart instructors favor the ServSafe exam over the ProStart COA which is evidence by the fact that 63 COA’s were awarded during the 2019-2020 school year while 4278 ServSafe exams were administered.

In addition to ServSafe, ACF’s Certified Fundamentals Cook is also on the CAPE list for the 2021-2022 school year.  To earn the Certified Fundamentals Cook students must pass a written and practical exam.  The exams can be proctored at your schools but require a culinary industry professional, who is not the class instructor.

ACF does not require a specific curriculum be used to prepare for the exams.  The instructor simply must show the material is being taught as part of the coursework.  The ProStart program does meet the requirement.  In the future, NRA may release a crosswalk between the ACF standards and the ProStart curriculum.   In the meantime, the link below provides a blueprint for the certification.

https://www.nocti.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JRCulArts4536.pdf

The FRLA does intend to submit the ServSuccess program for the CAPE list for the 2022-2023 school year.  For the 2021-2022 school year, programs will have to rely on ServSafe and the CFC.


Earning COA Hours During a Pandemic

The National Restaurant Association has approved the following alternatives to industry hours through the end of the 2020-2021 school year:

  • Students can set up their own YouTube channel. They can feature basic skills, like knife cuts and mother sauces, up to complex multistage dishes. If the students combine the work of planning, costing, practicing, filming and creating, editing and evaluating, this could be a pretty big project for each video.
  • Provide meals as part of a service project. Hours verification provided by teacher if teacher-led, or by parent to teacher
  • Run their home kitchen as if it were a café, creating menus and pricing for items cooked for families.  Students who work for student-based enterprises at their schools will find this familiar. Hours verification provided to teacher by parent
  • Create meals for their families (taking the menus and pricing from the option above out of the equation); there must be a bare minimum of work done – students cannot earn hours for making toast and bowls of cereal, for example. Hours verification provided to teacher by parent
  • Participate in non-ProStart but still industry-specific learning modules i.e. ServSuccess/CRP modules. Educators must create a worksheet that students must complete to earn any hours associated with these modules to ensure active learning. Hours verification provided by teacher.
  • Essay/Capstone project. Create an essay regarding leadership in the industry, with the incorporation of COVID-19. Students would be expected to describe what they would do if they had a restaurant and were faced with the decisions that our real life restauranteurs are facing. This would be a good case study and involve research as they could see which restaurants in their areas are still open, which ones are not, which ones closed permanently, limited menus, limited hours, delivery, grocerant, etc. and find if there are trends or similarities.  Hours verification provided by teacher if teacher-led, or by parent to teacher

 

Hospitality Industry Internships

The Hospitality Industry Internship (HII) provides the opportunity for Florida ProStart instructors to work in a foodservice/lodging establishment for at least 40 hours. Once the required paperwork has been processed, the participant will receive a personal check for $600.

To qualify for an HII, the instructor must teach the ProStart curriculum during the 2020-2021 school year. If you are already employed at a restaurant or hotel, you MAY NOT use that site for your internship. The restaurant/hotel must be a new work experience for you, not somewhere you have worked before or used as an HII internship location.

The applicant must secure a position at a foodservice facility where a minimum of 40 hours of hands-on experience is guaranteed. The host location may pay the recipient but is not required to do so.

The FRLAEF will award 11 HII’s this school year on a first-come, first-served basis. So apply NOW! Work experience may begin once the applicant receives an award notification from the FRLAEF.

CLICK HERE to apply.


Online Resources Page

The FRLAEF online resource page is being updated continuously with new information.

 

CLICK HERE to go to the page where you will find information about ProStart e-books, chapter animations and videos, foodsafety resources and more. In case you missed it, we have also made available all the notes from our Best Practice zoom meetings on this page.


First Edition Foundations Phasing Out June 2022

The first edition of Foundations of Restaurant Management & Culinary Arts will phase out in June 2022.  After June 2022 NRAEF will not longer grade ProStart exams relating to the first edition of the textbooks.  In order to remain a ProStart school and to test your students with the ProStart exams, you must have transitioned to at least the 2nd edition no later then June of 2022.

 


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