Over the last two weeks, Oldham Athletic Community Trust have teamed up with Oldham Council's Life Long Learning team to provide unemployed residents of Oldham a free level 2 Food Safety course.
If you want to work in the food industry then this qualification is a requirement when working with food. This ten hour course provided participants with the knowledge of the parameters of basic food safety practices relevant to the catering industry.
The course itself was run over two days with a tutor provided by Beverley Nickson programme leader from Life Long Learning. Over fifteen students aged 19+ completed the course which included a 30 minute exam on the final day (yesterday).
Participants were then treated to a ground tour lead by Oldham Athletic Community Trust's education officer, Dale Harris.
He commented: "It's been fantastic to work with Bev and her team from Life Long Learning. It gave us a chance to provide a great opportunity for the people of Oldham. The course itself went fantastically well and we now await their exam results with our fingers crossed."
“Not only that, we are going to invite all 15 participants back for an interview for the new catering facilities in the New North Stand. It has been a great example of community partnership all round and I am excited to see what the future might bring working alongside Bev and her team."
Participant, Stephen Goulden (31), said: "It was a very enjoyable course. It was well prepared, facilitated and professional. It was nice to come back to the stadium and spending two days here has made me want to get back into following Latics again like I did when I was a child. It has been a great opportunity now I just have to hope I have passed."
Another participant, Andrew Fielding (28), commented: "It was really well presented and a fantastic opportunity. I have met some great people on the course and it has been great to try something different. With the potential to gain employment in the new stand as a football fan I am very excited to come back for the interview."
Life Long Learning provides education opportunities for anyone in Oldham aged 19 and above, there are more Food Safety Course’s being held around Oldham.
Harris commented: "The work Bev and her team do at Life Long Learning is fantastic. A lot of people think education ends when you leave college or university, they work to provide education opportunities to everyone in Oldham. I look forward to working with them more in the near future."