Hotel school Pretoria

There are a good number of Matric students who will be looking at their choice of a future career at about this time of the year. Some of those, especially those who have passed Home Economics will be looking at careers in the catering industry. I am pleased to tell you that there is an hotel school in Pretoria – just outside Pretoria actually. The Prue Leith College of Food and Wine opened in 1996 in Hennopspark, a picturesque garden suburb of Centurion, home of this hotel school, Pretoria. It was only after complaints from several hotel owners some years earlier that the college was opened in order to help reduce the shortage in well-motivated hotel staff in the South African catering industry.

So, if you are in Matric and are contemplating a career in the hotel industry, you need look no further than the Prue Leith College of Food and Wine in Centurion. What qualifications do you need in order to apply? You need to have passed your Matric Exam – a standard grade pass will suffice, and you have to have reached eighteen years of age. You can obtain an application form from the college – details on this website, and after submitting it to the college you may be invited to attend the college for an interview and to complete a questionnaire. The Prue Leith Diploma is accepted all over the world in all branches of the catering industry. If the college accepts you, you will join a course that starts either in January or July and lasts for a full eighteen months. There are three six-month semesters during the course.

Once you join the college you will have to report for training and for work experience as rostered. You may be on either day or evening shifts and work will normally not exceed eight hours per day. You will be expected to do between three and five hours homework each week. Before you graduate you will be required to complete the Cape Wine Academy Certificate Course – this is normally during the second semester. At some time during your course there will be an opportunity to join an optional wine tour to the Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl wine regions to witness the making of wine – the cost of this tour will be for your own expense.

You will get plenty of opportunities to see how the industry works. From as early as your second week you will be working in Prue Leith’s – our restaurant in the college grounds. Here you will take orders from diners, prepare and cook the meals and serve the meals at table. Later during your course you may be the Maître d’Hotel, the Wine Steward or work Front of House, greeting guests as they arrive. Later you will get the opportunity of spending up to six months at a catering establishment (either a game lodge, an hotel or a restaurant) somewhere in South Africa or possibly in the United Kingdom, Ireland or the United Arab Emirates. The Prue Leith Hotel School in Pretoria will stand you in good stead in the catering industry anywhere in the world.