Is a culinary arts program in Westbury’s future? At the March 17 Westbury School District board of education meeting, trustees discussed the possibility of adding culinary arts as a CTE (career and technical education) program and heard from Harold Kaplan, who heads up the Educational Training Institute (ETI), which provides vocational training to high school students, as well as helps with internship and job placement.
Kaplan explained ETI’s culinary program, which has already met with success in several other school districts.
“The reason culinary arts works so well is because it’s a very hands-on, visual participatory type of program where students really get excited about what they do….it raises their self-esteem,” Kaplan said.
During the 800-hour training program, students will learn various culinary arts and restaurant management skills, including commercial cooking training, about kitchen equipment and terminology, food preparation, catering, food sanitation and food purchasing.
Not only would the program teach students invaluable skills, it would help them after graduation. Kaplan said students would be ready to enter the workforce immediately after completing the program.
“The ultimate goal is getting them a job,” Kaplan said. “This can give them options they might not have had otherwise. They can take this skill wherever they move.”
He noted that the culinary arts field was growing by “leaps and bounds” and that ETI would help place students at restaurants, assisted living facilities, hotels and other places for internships and full-time jobs.
The program would cost $8,500 per student, which includes all the necessary tools and resources; the district would just have to provide a kitchen. The program would be for four hours every school day, and Kaplan noted he was only looking for 15 to 20 motivated students each year who would be able to fully commit.
“I need students who are going to come to school every day. I want students who are motivated,” Kaplan said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for individuals who say to themselves they’re going to commit the time and effort to do this.”
The board expressed interest in the program, but said they are in the preliminary stages and would have to first gauge student interest in such an offering.
