Cancelled course will leave businesses hungry for cooks

Fast food boss Codrut Bajko has joined a campaign calling on Oban's college to rethink scrapping its cookery and hospitality courses.

 

Mr Bajko, who runs The Fish Box on the Esplanade, says the town's eateries are already starved of chefs and recruitment problems will only get worse if UHI Argyll takes cookery of its course menu.

 

'The hospitality industry has suffered tremendously in the past couple of years due to Covid and Brexit, we need all the help we can get and that includes being able to recruit chefs and managers.

 

'Hospitality is one of Oban's biggest employers. Considering all the cafes and restaurants and hotels we have in this town and all the job opportunities that come with them, it's ridiculous the college is cancelling these courses. They need to think again,' he said.

 

Mr Bajko, who worked as a steel machinist in Romania before coming to live in Scotland seven years ago and working as a kitchen porter, said studying cookery and hospitality management at the college gave him the confidence and know-how to start up his own successful business.

 

UHI Argyll announced recently that although it was 'acutely aware' of the importance of catering and hospitality to the local economy, it no longer had the ‘luxury’ of running courses which have low numbers.

 

Four part-time staff  have been told they are at risk of redundancy. Consultation with staff and unions is ongoing.

 

Mr Bajko's 16-year-old daughter was due to start a cookery course at the college this  term but was told it was cancelled just two weeks before it was due to start. She is now beginning an apprenticeship in his kitchen instead, but it is not the same as going to college, he said.

 

'It's a big disappointment. Studying cookery and hospitality in Oban was the best thing that ever happened to me and I wanted that for my daughter. It's not the same as going into college on an actual course, she will only see how I work - not other chefs. Concentration is not the same either, in college she would be able to focus 100 per cent on her studies. She will also miss out on making friends,' said Mr Bajko.

 

He added uncertainty over Covid could have impacted course take-up and said the college could have done more to promote the cookery and hospitality courses to people already living in Oban looking for work in that sector.

 

'The job opportunities are on our doorstep but sadly the learning and training won't be,' he added.

 

EIS-FELA (Educational Institute of Scotland and Further Education Lecturers’ Association) trade union branch is running a petition to support the lecturers at risk of losing their jobs.

 

You can see it here www.eis.org.uk/college-disputes/argyll-college-redundancies