Guest Speaker: Building Futures through Career Technical Education
01 March 2014
Career technical education (CTE) programs such as the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ProStart give students the skills and experience they need to achieve rewarding, long-term careers in the high-growth restaurant sector.
By Rob Gifford
For nearly 20 years, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s (NRAEF) ProStart program has been supporting the restaurant sector by providing a steady pipeline of talent to support the industry’s growth. ProStart exposes high-school students to rewarding career opportunities and the skills needed to succeed in the foodservice field, and is considered one of the pre-eminent CTE programs in the United States
ProStart has achieved phenomenal, sustained growth based on its ability to interest young people in an industry that is creating career opportunities like few others. ProStart is stronger than ever through unique engagement between industry and educators and extends into more than 2,200 high schools across 48 states to reach nearly 100,000 students.
ProStart’s rigorous teaching materials, assessment tools and partnerships with restaurant-sector employers prepare students for careers or additional studies in hospitality programs offered at postsecondary institutions. Students also compete annually in the National ProStart Invitational, the country’s premier high-school competition focused on restaurant management and culinary arts. Furthermore, ProStart students are eligible each year for millions of scholarship dollars to help continue their studies.
According to the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), high-school students involved in CTE are more engaged, perform better and graduate at higher rates. This proves true in the restaurant industry, with the NRAEF’s research finding that 81% of students who complete the ProStart program are still studying and/or working in the industry five years later. Our data also indicates that a majority of restaurant-sector employees across all ages and job titles believe the industry provides good long-term career opportunities.
With total restaurant and foodservice employment projected to grow by 11% over the next decade, CTE programs such as ProStart play a critical role in cultivating a skilled, talented workforce for our industry. This year, the NRAEF will implement a comprehensive evaluation of ProStart to help us set clear goals for program effectiveness as we look toward the future. We plan to develop additional training programs to engage new audiences that extend beyond the high-school classroom.
In addition, the NRAEF has recently become more active in the national discussion surrounding the need for and importance of CTE. As members of the CTE community, we all should work to strengthen relationships with key influencers and policymakers at the state and national levels and underscore how programs such as ProStart are making a critical difference in creating opportunity.
Through ProStart, the NRAEF is committed to raising awareness of the myriad opportunities for employment and advancement in the foodservice industry. By talking to our current students, educators and alumni, as well as analyzing where we’ve been and where we want to go, we are confident that the NRAEF and ProStart will continue to play a vital role as a leader in CTE.
For more information about the NRAEF and ProStart, visit www.nraef.org.
Rob Gifford is executive vice president of strategic operations and philanthropy for the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
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