It’s a fresh new role for East Durham College catering student Rebecca Quinn as she becomes one of the first young people to benefit from EDC’s new industry placement scheme, completing an extended work placement at local restaurant and bar Clean Bean in Seaham.
As part of her placement, Rebecca will be assisting fellow chefs in the busy kitchen at Clean Bean, serving up their healthy food menu and specials. At the same time, Rebecca will also continue to hone her craft on her Level 3 Catering course at East Durham College’s Peterlee campus.
Clean Bean is a new business which only opened eight weeks ago in Seaham. The stunningly-designed restaurant and bar serves up gluten-free food to hungry patrons on Seaham’s beachfront.
Their menu is designed around fresh, high-quality ingredients, the way nature intended without the unnecessary flavour enhancers, preservatives, additional colouring, refined sugars or other chemicals.
Industry placements give young people at the college real working experience in an actual working business over an extended period. Unlike normal work experience, which may only last a week or two, an industry placement is completed over several months and gives the student a thorough understanding of a business and how it operates. This provides students with a chance to put into practice the knowledge and technical skills they have learned during their course.
As a catering student, it is important for Rebecca to gain experience of life in a real kitchen – something which Clean Bean was only too happy to provide.
East Durham College is committed to supporting the development of our young people, and supporting local businesses by providing talented, trained students for industry placements.
Michelle Robinson, Industry Placement Coordinator at East Durham College, said: “We were thrilled that Clean Bean offered this placement to Rebecca – since starting, Rebecca has been getting great feedback from Linda, and an industry placement experience like this will be fantastic for her future career prospects.”
East Durham College offers industry placements to students taking many other subjects at the college including electrical, plumbing and heating, motor vehicle, engineering, media and travel/tourism.
