Tourism industry asks college for new programming

Representatives from the Westmark Whitehorse, Gold Rush and High Country Hotels, as well as the city of Whitehorse Tourism and Yukon Tourism Education Council have worked with Yukon College to develop a new program – Food and Beverage Operations Certificate. This eight month program will commence in September 2011 and provide skilled professionals in bartending and dining room service for the territory.

Yukon College has a new training facility that’s been waiting to be used for just this purpose. The Hilltop Bistro is the College’s 45 seat dining room and the facility that will be used for training students in this new program. It will be open to the public starting October 2011, serving lunch four days a week.

Heather McIntyre, the general manager of the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel, is an enthusiastic supporter of the program. “We hope to have this certificate becomes a requirement for all of our food and beverage service employees in the future,” McIntyre asserted. “We expect to be able to provide quality service for our clientele and this program will be a great asset to improving the level of service delivered in the Yukon.”

The College’s Culinary Arts program has been tweaked to address this new training facility as well. Culinary Arts students will be preparing fine dining over lunch, for delivery by the Food and Beverage students. Food and Beverage students, on a four student per shift rotational basis, will manage all aspects of the Hilltop Bistro.

This program will ensure that the tourism industry has a pool of well-qualified individuals applying to work in Yukon, who see food and beverage service as a career. They’ll be given the skills to impress customers and employers alike. The majority of tourism employees in the Yukon are employed in the food and beverage industry.