That’s why the honour of being titled this year's “Top in Trades” winner in the Innovator category serves as a celebration of the commitment White Spot puts into training and staff development. What is Top in Trades? It is an industry-recognized awards program created by the Industry Training Authority in partnership with The Province newspaper. These prestigious awards have engaged British Columbians since the inception three years ago and have brought well-deserved recognition to many noteworthy tradespeople in every sector.
Having reached the “legendary” status in BC, the restaurant chain recognizes that innovation leads to great things. So it’s no surprise that they place a heavy priority in their pilot in-house apprenticeship program. Complementing their existing Red Seal Skills Upgrading program, this program is the first of its kind to be offered in BC.
“The program was developed with the support of go2, the official Industry Training Organization for BC’s tourism, hospitality and foodservices sector,” said Denise Buchanan, White Spot's Vice President of Human Resources. “The program really took off when we spoke to the go2 team, and they helped accelerate the process."
Culinary excellence starts with the quality of the kitchen staff. White Spot knows this all too well. As the Red Seal is a nationally recognized symbol of quality and is the standardized inter-provincial certification for Canadian cooks, it was a natural progression to integrate it into a training program for high achieving employees. The program offers demonstrated leaders the opportunity to develop their culinary skills in-house and to pursue certification without any disruption to their regular work schedule and earnings.
“Not only are we retaining our leaders, but we are also getting strong new hires,” said James Kennedy, White Spot’s Corporate Training Chef and certified Chef de Cuisine. Responsible for conducting the program, Kennedy came on board two years ago at the outset of the apprenticeship initiative. He has already experienced an increase in applications from attendees of high school and post secondary culinary programs as a result of the in-house apprenticeship program.
To remain a leader in their market, White Spot carries out regular menu improvements with the help of celebrated chefs as well as with their own respected team. This requires that all of White Spots restaurants retain high calibre chefs to operate their kitchens. According to Buchanan, they currently have a strong group of Red Seal certified staff and are now benefiting from the fresh vigour of a solid group of apprentices.
“Without a Red Seal chef, we can't put a registered apprentice in the restaurants,” explains Kennedy.
The program is already evolving as a result of its company-wide success. While the company had initially planned on placing one Red Seal certified chef in every restaurant by 2010, with the program’s popularity, their new goal is to have two in each location.
Training and trusted partnerships are two of the core beliefs that White Spot focuses on to succeed. This focus has clearly paid off. By constantly helping their staff to attain higher goals and by working with partners such as go2, White Spot continues to prove the viability of their model. On the back of the mouth-watering creations served up by their expert army of Red Seal certified chefs and corps of apprentices, the well loved brand of White Spot lives on.
