Real Life Experience

While classroom experience is necessary to learn the foundational culinary and management skills, nothing beats real-life experience gained by working in the industry. ProStart® students learn how to be an industry professional through hands-on work under the direction of a mentor. Mentors help students make the connection between their present performance and their future career.

Real-Life Experience Benefits

During mentored work experiences, ProStart students master the skills that industry experts identified as critical to success, such as:

Knife skills
Customer service
Cost control
Culinary techniques
Marketing

Students also learn the importance of arriving on time prepared for work, teamwork and accountability.

ProStart National Certificate of Achievement

By completing 400 hours of real-life work experience, students meet the work experience requirements needed to earn the ProStart National Certificate of Achievement.

Find out how you can get started with real-life experience as a mentor or student.