One of the booming industries in Sabah is the food industry. Restaurants serving various Asian foods and even western fast-food restaurants are being opened, so there is an unending demand for good and trusted cooks and other kitchen staff, waiters and waitresses, and cashiers. Goducate hopes to train our current and ex-students to meet this demand.
First we need a good trainer. Our search for one ended in July, when our previous part-time literacy teacher, Teacher H, who has also been a cook for many years in an Indian restaurant, came to ask me whether he could join us again. He stopped teaching over a year ago, when his wife took over his teaching duties. Although he is enjoying his work as a cook, he says that nothing can compare with the joy of helping others through teaching literacy at our centers. After our discussion he agreed to come back, not as a literacy teacher, but as a cookery trainer in our livelihood program.
Last month, Teacher H started his cookery class with 11 students at the Goducate livelihood-training section situated in Goducate’s main literacy center. His students consisted of some intermediate-grade pupils at our literacy centers, some of our young assistant teachers, and others from neighboring communities. An important feature about the cookery training is that trainees will learn not only culinary skills but also good workplace attitudes.
Having been a Goducate teacher in the past, Teacher H understands Goducate style of combining character training with skills training. He has also been successful in training two others to be cooks—his own children. Although Teacher H is considered by his boss to be vital to the restaurant, his two children, who are now also working at the same restaurant, are able to hold the fort when he is not around. They are also earning enough to financially support the family.
Having trained his own children to be cooks, he wants to do likewise for others who are willing to learn, so that they will be able to help themselves. As he told his trainees, if they perform well during the training, he can recommend them to his restaurant boss or to other restaurant owners.
