Did you know that in 2012 the unemployment rate among young high school graduates coming out of the Institute of Tourism and Hotel du Québec (ITHQ) was 6.7%? It was a point lower than the overall unemployment rate in Quebec. For numbers of college, it fell to 4.5%! But these statistics from the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports (MELS) does not tell the whole story. Life in the kitchen is really that glamorous?


This summer, every Monday night, the cuisine of Chef! was invaded by cameras CBC, celebrating creativity and techniques of a Hakim, an Isabella or Jonathan. But at the other end of the kitchen, the secondary trainee cooks are there to anticipate the success of their first bechamel! Whether ITHQ at the School of Hotel Capital (EHC) or Vocational Training Centre Lake Abitibi in La Sarre, different directions of these educational establishments agree that falls above in the kitchen because we are passionate.


Of course, the Diploma of Vocational Studies (DVS) are not always good press. Sometimes it's a siding for those whom society considers dunces. But according to Denis Castonguay, interim director at the School of Hotel Capital of the school board of the same name, "The success in a person, it is not always at the university level. At our school, we even people who have gone through college only to find that they were ultimately happier in the kitchen! "


Training substantially similar everywhere
Aside from the ITHQ of Montreal who teaches college and university level regarding hospitality and tourism, found in this prestigious school as in other Quebec vocational training centers much the same way at secondary: pastry, market cuisine, catering, butcher, baker or sommelier. Schools like the Vocational Training Centre Lake Abitibi offer, in addition to the DEP, some specializations as contemporary pastry leading to an Attestation of Vocational Specialization (AVS). Courses that extend over a period of 18 months. And that bump! Before developing showpieces, must learn how to peel vegetables!


If the training is also proposed, a facility such as La Sarre will also offer "training in the form of themed cooking during weekends and for anyone interested, whether they are students or not our center . Sometimes we also offer cooking classes to elementary school students and high school, "says Dr. Steven Mailloux of Abitibi center.


Go elsewhere
Recognizing that training kitchen should not stop at hometown student, some schools encourage internships and international exchanges.
In addition to the research aspect that will bring some teachers ITHQ to attend conferences in the United States in France and Germany, an institution like the School of Hotel Capital development - as his Montreal for - on agreements exchanges. French lycée in Bordeaux, Nice and Concarneau in Brittany are in close contact with the EHC. Found even in the store of the Quebec Street School Robert Rumilly-made ??chocolate in Concarneau! Besides, by the way, in this shop, either from starter to dessert, to some pieces of meat dishes made ??by students in the nation's capital are available to the public at bargain prices competition! In addition, Mr. Castonguay says that some French students enrolled full time in school. "While in France, they would be required to have academic, here they focus only on the kitchen side. "The EHC also welcomes students from North Africa.


And after graduation?
While many programs focused on culinary arts attract so many viewers, does that mean that trades in the kitchen are the Eldorado? Steven Mailloux 'working hours and working conditions "that must combine with" family life "are often a barrier for young graduates. Fortunately, gratuities release are often shared with the cooks as confirmed Louis-Félix Pétel-Lebrun, who works in a chic pizzeria Plateau Mont-Royal in Montreal.


Yet, according to figures provided by Linda Marquis ITHQ and derived from the annual management report 2012-2013, "among graduates ITHQ employment on 31 March 2012, 97.6% were employed full time . "Ditto for the graduates of the EHC. But why such abandon if the art restorers are pulling their graduates when they leave school? At La Sarre, 20% of young people would hang their first choice. Abitibi or Montreal and Quebec City, Steven Mailloux is adamant: "We see more and more that people who are successful in this program are true artists at heart. "There is also another consistency that emerges from the various interviews: perseverance. But check made ??to the MELS, the 101 course on it was not yet on the agenda!