Jason Cloete, Jewish Care Head of Food & Beverage
It’s been a year since Jewish Care launched our industry-leading and innovative Housekeeping Academy and Chef Academies. In that short time we’ve been hugely rewarded by seeing our vision become a reality in the two new training programmes which are bringing change and opportunities for our Hospitality teams.
The aim of the new Academies is for excellence in standards across all of our resources so that staff are trained to provide Jewish Care’s residents, Retirement Living tenants and community centre members with the best hospitality service, wherever they are.
To get the training up and running, I worked closely with our Executive Housekeeping Supervisor, Erika Orsos and Jo Smith, our Hospitality Business Manager to write the Housekeeping Handbook; a base of knowledge about the procedures of the housekeeping at Jewish Care across our 11 care homes and four Retirement Living apartments and our nine community centres. Next, we worked with our Training and Development Team to put together the training programme so our staff could learn how to deliver the training.
The practical hands-on training has given us the opportunity to share best practice, along with the Housekeeping Handbook with all of our staff. New staff will do this training course too, as part of their induction when they join Jewish Care.
As well as covering products, processes and learning tips, we talked about the ups and downs of the role, what makes us happy or upset when we are working as a team or as individual and how to deal with issues. At the end of the course, we hope that everyone feels that we are here to support them if they need us. We’ve had fun delivering the programme and we’ve learnt a lot from each other, building support, confidence and success together as a wider team.
Our catering, housekeeping staff and chefs play a vital role, interacting with tenants, residents and community centre members each day and the training is providing fantastic opportunities.
Mohammed Mousa, has been part of Jewish Care’s housekeeping team for 25 years and works at Jewish Care’s Anita Dorfman House care home at Sandringham. He has found it inspiring to learn new things at this stage in his career with the Academy. Stella Adjei, who joined the organisation two years ago and works at our Sundridge care home, shared how proud and excited she felt on her graduation day, to be part of this first cohort.
The Academies are part of a supportive learning and caring culture at Jewish Care. The programmes we have developed are being received in a very positive way and our graduates are learning new skills that will help them in their roles and continue to learn with bitesize learning. It’s often the attention to detail that makes all the difference to people, so that they feel special and cared for.
Our staff see our residents, tenants and community centre members daily. Some like to have a chat whilst the housekeeping team are working and they often share how much they appreciate the team’s care and attention. These interactions really do mean a lot for our colleagues.
As a manager I’ve also loved seeing our leaders in our training team develop. They have been inspired by the way they can empower staff when they share their enthusiasm and expertise. One of our Head Chefs, Rachid Halouane, shares his wide knowledge and experience in providing culturally-specific food and care within our accredited Chef’s Academy.
The internationally accredited qualification incorporates chef skills and knowledge, along with all chefs need to know about working within a Jewish faith-based organisation. Chefs are completing their Level 2 production Chef diploma over a 12 month period and there are opportunities for apprenticeships as well as monthly workshops with all chefs across the organisation. Food is central to Jewish life and the culturally-sensitive social care that we provide so we tie the training in with making the food that enables older people we care for to celebrate festivals and Sabbath throughout the Jewish year.
Through the specialist training, Rachid encourages and inspires chefs to improve and innovate so each resident and tenant is enjoying Kosher, beautifully presented, tasty food that keeps them nourished and well, whilst feeling that their identity is respected and expressed so that they feel at home.
Our tailor-made chef’s training is unique. Initiatives like these are creating even better services for older people in our care as well as making us an employer of choice and the market leader in the sector. The apprenticeship is a great way to build a career in catering and I’m proud that we are investing in the personal development and careers of our staff so we can deliver the very best service for all the older people we support and care for.
