‘Dragonfly Cuisine’ has been developed as an enterprise extension to the ‘Skills for Working Life: Hospitality and Catering’ course. We aim to provide quality, affordable lunches to our local community.
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The main idea behind ‘Dragonfly Cuisine’ is to provide the 20 students with experience of cooking a range of dishes that would both develop their basic skills and provide an insight into meeting the requirements of preparing meals in an industrial setting.
In order to achieve this goal it was decided after some discussion with the students involved that the products produced by the students would be served in individual portions that then would be frozen and later sold to members of staff.
As their confidence and knowledge with the greater understanding of different foods and their properties has grown, they are becoming more creative and forward looking with their ideas for the future of this enterprise. They started with just developing their basic cooking skills by experimenting with pastry and cakes. Then as their confidence and knowledge has grown, they experimented with two or three simple dishes for example chicken casserole. From here students have gone on to develop a range of eight dishes for example Sauté de Beef Bourguignon, Lasagne along side vegetarian dishes which they have looked into costing and packaging for sale within the school.
The students would like to see this develop further by building a restaurant that not only could supply the local staff with an alternative venue but further involve the local community by having the local senior citizens in perhaps once or twice a week.
Built within this rolling product development is the completion of the necessary theory notes in order that they can expand their knowledge so that this can then be applied to develop their enterprise further and address any problems encountered.
This holistic approach to hospitality and catering allows students to develop self-confidence and self-respect as they not only review and evaluate their own progress but also that of their peers and that of the ‘Dragonfly Cuisine’ enterprise.
The development of ‘Dragonfly Cuisine’ is also by necessity a team project therefore the development of flexibility and cooperativeness, amongst the students, is essential if the project is to be successful and problems encountered are to be solved satisfactorily. The ‘hands on’ approach to this enterprise has led to the development of the idea of taking the initiative through co-leadership and negotiation skills so that they can be more achievement orientated and proactive in taking more responsibility for the future development of the ‘Dragonfly Cuisine’ enterprise thereby building their own motivation and enthusiasm.
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- Managing Director
- Company Secretary
- Finance Director
- Sales Director
- Marketing Director
- Human Resources Director
- Preperation and Meu planning
- ICT Director
- Customer Service Director
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The skills gained from undertaking this ‘Skills for Working Life’ course will enable the students to approach their future careers, whether entering into higher education or into the employment market with a greater degree of self-confidence and self-assuredness.
The ‘Skills for Working Life’ course has been very successful and through tasting amongst the staff, students have gained valuable insights into the areas they wish to see the course develop in the future. In addition, the skills and self-confidence gained during this course have helped them when they undertake their two-day a week work placements.
The following curriculum areas are supported by this course
- Food Technology
- Business Studies
- Media Studies
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Students produce a variety of foreign food for sale within the school. They also sell menus which they design for other schools in the area.
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This success has led to greater numbers of students wishing to join as students see that it is a valuable way of developing themselves, their confidence and their skills base ready for when they leave school and go onto higher education or the world of employment.
The business is now planning to expand by offering meals to the local elderly people and visitors to the school.
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