Accreditation and awards for Culinary Arts program
Posted: March 24, 2015
Graduates now eligible to receive Certified Culinarian® certification
TACOMA, Wash. –Bates Technical College’s Culinary Arts program can add national accreditation and regional awards to their growing list of accomplishments.
Valid for three years, accreditation from the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Education Foundation’s Accrediting Commission assures that the program meets ACF standards and competencies set for faculty, curriculum and student services. Graduates of the program are eligible to receive Certified Culinarian® certification.
“We are excited to receive this accreditation for our program,” said Chef Roger Knapp, Culinary Arts instructor. “This underscores the high quality education we offer to our students, and will help graduates as they enter the workforce, as there is a growing preference for ACF-certified applicants,” he said.
The rigorous approval process included an in-depth self-study evaluation of the program, a site visit, and interviews with various stakeholders at the college.
In addition to earning accreditation, the Washington State Chef’s Association awarded the program with the Humanitarian Award for building, sorting, and packing 6,600 lunches for participants in the Special Olympics in May 2014.
WSCA President Tony Parker said, “The commitment the program made to undertake the task of organizing, staging and building the 6,600 sack lunches for the athletes of the summer Special Olympics was a huge success. This could not have been made possible without the support of the college, culinary program, students and chef instructors.”
The association also recognized instructor chef JJ Meland as Professional Chef of the Year to honor Meland’s dedication to his craft and professionalism in the industry.
“Chef JJ Meland stepped up on short notice and took on the Special Olympics sack lunch project without a second thought,” said Parker. “Meland’s organization of all the moving parts demonstrated his qualities as a leader. His professionalism throughout the process is what struck me and made him an easy choice for the WSCA Professional Chef of the Year,” he said.
For more information about the Culinary Arts program, call 253.680.7002, or go to www.bates.ctc.edu/CulinaryArts.
About Bates Technical College
Founded in 1940, Bates Technical College offers certificate and degree opportunities in nearly 50 career education programs, and serves approximately 3,000 career training students and 10,000 more community members annually in extended learning, distance learning, high school, and other programs. For more information, go to www.bates.ctc.edu, or call 253.680.7000.
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