Leisure and Hospitality in Charlottesville

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce recently released its "Chamber Jobs Report" for 2007. Among private enterprise employment sectors, Leisure and Hospitality ranked third with 10,936 jobs or 15.1%. Surprised? Not if you follow the recent trends in the Charlottesville area with increased emphasis on tourism and the large number of retirees relocating to the area. How is CATEC responding to this?

Currently we have a well established Culinary Arts program that goes well beyond the old days of Home-ec. Robert Bressan, the instructor, infuses a community-based teaching model where the students prepare, cook, serve and host for groups in events throughout the area. We are talking high quality, mostly from scratch, food, not just PB&J sandwiches.

There are plenty of jobs in the hospitality industry but preparing our students to have a wide-range of skills that are particular to both the technical and softskills necessary for employment is essential. Part of our task is to expose high school students to the career opportunities within the leisure and hospitality cluster. Taking a course such as culinary opens the doors for many opportunities that students may not be aware of. "You don't know what you don't know" and the more we can inform and educate our youth, the more opportunities for success they will have in the future.