On the menu - cooks and kitchen hands

The west division of Auckland Prison has a new training kitchen. On 24 August it opened its doors, providing a major hospitality training opportunity for segregated prisoners in that part of the prison.

Four of the five wings of the west division accommodate medium security segregated prisoners. In the training kitchen Robert Sikora is able to train 10 prisoners in the morning and another 10 in the afternoon. The hospitality training course runs for four weeks and concentrates on basic cooking skills, food preparation and food hygiene. CIE is planning follow up training for those prisoners who have completed the course and are nearing their release.

Internal Services Assistant Sector Manager Russell Baker says, “The vacancy reports from the Department of Labour show that hospitality training is a good area for us to expand. Kitchen hands and cooks are constantly in demand in the greater Auckland region as in many other parts of New Zealand.

“Manawatu/Taranaki is another region needing hospitality staff so we are also refurbishing a training kitchen in Wanganui Prison. In both kitchens prisoners will be working towards a NZQA National Certificate in Hospitality Level 2.”

The main difference between the two new kitchens is the kitchen at the Wanganui Prison is for training high security prisoners. This involves extra safety measures such as the installation of extra cameras. In the next issue of CIE News we will be publishing an interview with the CIE Instructor concerned, Mark Coveny.