The love for cooking was instilled in him from a young age. Now, Yannick Karels (29) wants to show other young people what the hospitality industry has to offer. He founded the KitchenSmart foundation and is now preparing young adults with a distance to the labor market for a career in the kitchen.
As a child, he was fascinated by the sounds in his mothers kitchen, especially the scraping of a wooden spoon over the bottom of a pan. He laughs about it now: ‘I cant explain it, but I just found it very interesting.’ So he received a wooden spoon set for his 5th birthday.
The now 29-year-old Yannick Karels learned something else from his mother: social engagement. She worked in Suriname for better education for young children and also founded several schools. He proudly talks about it. ‘She really made a difference there.’ Yannicks mother passed away 2 years ago. But now, in a sense, he is following in her footsteps. He founded KitchenSmart last year. With this foundation, he wants to help young people who experience a distance to the labor market and who see a career in the hospitality industry as a possibility.
Training
KitchenSmart offers these young people a free practical cooking training. They learn the basic skills, from cutting techniques to different preparation methods. The course lasts about 80 hours, or: a maximum of a few weeks.
This is intentional, Yannick explains. ‘Young people who have fallen through the cracks in one way or another dont want to go to school for years. They just want to get started.’
After the practical course at KitchenSmart, they can work as an assistant cook in almost any kitchen. In addition, the foundation also arranges a multi-day work placement, in a place where they have a chance of getting a permanent position. Because, the hospitality industry is struggling with staff shortages. Yannick knows this because he also worked in that industry. Initially, it wasnt the intention at all, he says. ‘It was just a side job, I started as a dishwasher.’ He did this alongside his studies in International Business and Management. But when he graduated, he concluded that he found the hospitality industry much more enjoyable than a career in the business world. ‘Cooking is simply my passion.’
Opportunities
Yannick also saw the growth opportunities that the hospitality industry offers: he himself climbed from the dishwashing area to branch manager at a large provider of cooking workshops. But for young people who have had a bit more bad luck in their lives, seizing those opportunities is sometimes more difficult.
As the director of his brand-new foundation KitchenSmart, Yannick now wants to do something about that. He simply says: ‘I want to do something that really matters, just like my mother. I often went with her and I have always seen that helping other people gave her a lot of satisfaction.’
About KitchenSmart
KitchenSmart received a subsidy and, thanks to this contribution, can prepare about 200 young people for a career in the hospitality industry free of charge in the coming years. The foundation focuses on young people between the ages of 18 and 27 who have a distance to the labor market.
Are you or do you know such a young person? Then check the website kitchensmart.nl. Link opens an external page.
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