Students jump-start careers with CCAP Approved

Nearly two dozen juniors and seniors from Arizona's CCAP classes participated in a late-April pilot testing of CCAP's newly-established CCAP Approved professional certification for entry-level kitchen positions.

With around 250,000 Careers through Culinary Arts Program (CCAP) graduates currently working in the hospitality industry throughout this country, Richard Grausman, CCAP founder and chairman, says, "We have been working for 25 years to assure that culinary students completing initial courses at the high school level master both hard and soft basic skills.

"CCAP Approved will assure chefs and managers that new hires with this certification will want to work and learn, will have basic safety, sanitation and knife skills, and will be able to identify and use basic equipment and ingredients. They'll show up on time and be willing to do whatever is asked of them on the job."

Students seeking CCAP Approved status must pass online culinary skills testing through Rouxbe, and have a current Arizona food-handler's card, in addition to passing a hard skills kitchen exam demonstrating knife skills and preparing a classic rolled French omelet.

Students seek professional "stamp of approval"

Students from Santa Rita High School who participated, under the guidance of culinary educator Becky Yim included Anthony Amaviso, Analicia Banuelos, Daniel Saldivar, and Chance White.

Also participating were eight students from Morenci High School. These include Mattheas Castillo, Cora Conrow, John Fanchier, Austin Miller, Denicia Provencio, Santiago Robledo, Nicholas Saiz and Linzy Woddard, under culinary educator Sherry Carbajal's instruction.

Shawn Morris, culinary educator at Glendale High School, also has eight students who took part in the pilot testing. They include Sabrina Aguilar, Vanessa Gamica, Enrique Garcia, Mikala Grooms, Cynthia Huitudo, Fernanda Ochoa, Selena Rodriguez and Daniela Serrrano.

Jill Smith, CCAP's Arizona program directors, says,"CCAP Approved will insure a higher level of capabilities for first-time workers. We believe executive chefs, restaurant managers and owners will be able to have confidence that these new workers will require less training time. They'll have fewer equipment mishaps and less down time from accidents."

With Arizona's Department of Administration predicting more than 20,000 new job openings in the hospitality industry in Arizona just within the next year,  employers may be eager to hire young workers ready to begin work with real professional level skills.