– Most of us in the subject are not necessarily good at school or happy at school. We would rather just work. Cutting and cooking, says Petter Soma (21). He is a chef and former chef apprentice at Fisketorget in Stavanger. Something there are fewer and fewer of. The whole country is struggling to recruit young people to the food professions. According to Rogaland County Municipality, this has especially intensified after the pandemic. There are examples of restaurants and hotels that have to deliver reduced menus and opening hours as a consequence of this. Today, those who study restaurant and food subjects go to school for two years, before they are apprentices at a restaurant for two more. Then they take a trade certificate, and are trained as a chef, waiter or meat cutter. But now Rogaland County Municipality will bring 15- and 16-year-olds straight from 10th grade to an apprenticeship contract at a restaurant or a food company. Former county mayor and current leader of the education committee in the county, Solveig Ege Tengesdal (KrF). Photo: Anders Haualand / NRK Establishing apprenticeships From the autumn, they will establish 15 apprenticeships, where an adapted race will be made with a school that will be feasible for everyone. – We should have had more young people who chose exactly that direction in food and food production. More people must choose that path, says leader of the education committee in the county, Solveig Ege Tengesdal (KrF). Several companies in Rogaland are positive about it, according to Ege Tengesdal. One of them is Fisketorget in Stavanger. – People are differently motivated after ten years of primary and secondary school. Some want to get out to work, says chef and general manager Karl Erik Pallesen. Chef and general manager at Fisketorget in Stavanger, Karl Erik Pallesen, believes the proposal to Rogaland County Municipality is a great idea. Photo: Ingvald Nordmark / NRK Restaurant owner: – Look to Denmark He points out that it presupposes that a good plan is made on how they are to be followed up, and not least that they as a company make a good plan to welcome them. – Denmark has had this model for many years. It works very well there. They educate good people and have chefs at the top of the world, says Pallesen. He points out that they experience that there are fewer and fewer applicants for positions they advertise in the restaurant, and believes they absolutely have to do something new. – It is not only chefs we need more of, but also waiters, meat cutters and butchers. A new model is needed, he says. Receives support from Utdanningsforbundet According to figures from Utdanningsdirektoratet, there were 970 students who were first-time apprentices in the culinary profession in 2019. Of these, only 458 ended up taking a trade certificate in 2021. The number of students who applied for culinary and waiter subjects at VG2 went down this year, while the number of applicants as cooking apprentices at VG3 remained stable. County leader of the Education Association, Gunn Reidun Tednes-Aaserød. Photo: Arild Eskeland / NRK Utdanningsforbundet applauds the measure. County leader Gunn Reidun Tednes-Aaserød explains that it is a measure that has already been tried out in the building and construction industry and in the hairdressing industry. – The students will then have the opportunity to take the educational course via the “apprenticeship school”. This means that they go straight into apprenticeship and can take subjects through the apprenticeship school. They must pass the subjects, in order to then sit for a trade test, she says. Petter Soma, chef at Fisketorget in Stavanger. Photo: Ingvald Nordmark / NRK Worked in via the dishes Petter Soma has worked at Fisketorget since he was 15 years old. First in the dishes, before he gradually moved closer to the pots. He has no doubt that he would have turned down this offer if it existed when he went to 10th grade. – I went to school and worked next door. There were some smaller hours of sleep. It would have been very nice to just get started with practice right away, he says.
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Want 10th graders straight in as apprentices in the restaurant and food subject – NRK Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
