Culinary Koha

Ringa Hora, the Workforce Development Council responsible for developing qualifications and standards for the service sector, including hospitality, has been working on a project to reform the way competence of culinary practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand is recognised and assessed. We worked with Te Pūkenga on this project.

After consultation we found industry wanted and needed the following skills developed in staff:

• Technical culinary knowledge and skill
• Organisational/Time Management/Workflow
• Agility in dealing with problems
• Manaakitanga
• Kotahitanga/Whanaungatanga – teamwork, interpersonal skills
• Leadership, developing wellbeing within the workplace
• Financial literacy
• Sustainability (social, environmental, business)

We have built:

• drafts for a range of qualifications with broadly stated outcomes
• corresponding draft skill standards covering food preparation and cooking techniques (e.g., emulsification, curing, developing gluten), rather than the execution of specific dishes.

We plan for people to do their learning and be recognised for their skills in a very wide variety of environments, from food carts to marae wharekai, hotels and restaurants, to artisan cafes.

Download and view the personas we have created showing expertise within different environments here

Review our draft qualifications and skills standards

We have produced a number of qualification and skill standard drafts and have linked samples of these for you to review and consider below. These, if implemented, will help our industry find staff by making it easier to get recognised for knowledge and skills.