A nationally recognized program has now been implemented at Southside High School, giving students interested in the food service industry a leg up on landing a job straight out of high school.

Southside started its second year of its Pro Start program, a replacement for its Foods program, that was developed by the National Restaurant Association and leads to a nationally recognized work credential in the restaurant and food service industry, said Dale Cole, SHS principal. The program comes as part of Southside’s mission to provide students with programs and opportunities that give them similar work credentials, allowing for a more productive return on job-hunting after high school.

“What we’re looking for is preparing students for their next step whatever they choose that to be,” Cole said.

Cole said a visit to a Durham-area high school is how he learned of the program’s existence and thought it would be a great fit for Southside due to culinary arts being one of the fastest growing industries in the nation. With the Pro Start certification, students can go anywhere in the nation and get a job in a restaurant, catering business or other venue related to the industry, said Beth Bennett, SHS Pro Start program instructor. The program covers two specified areas of study — culinary arts and restaurant management, according to Cole.

Another benefit Career and Technical Education programs at Southside, particularly Pro Start, offers is that it meets a need in the community, Cole said. In the program, students also have the opportunity to earn scholarships and internships, not to mention an opportunity to compete on the state and national level at Pro Start competitions, designed to test students’ skills in both concentrations of study. Cole hopes for SHS students to be able to compete in the state competition next year, he said.

“If you talk to local restaurant owners, the biggest problem they have is finding skilled workers that can walk in with skills they need and are willing to stay and do well,” Cole said. “We want to bridge that gap with the skills and certifications they need to walk in and get a job at somewhere like Down on Mainstreet. We put (Pro Start) in place to make learning more relevant to careers, but also to serve the community and provide workers in a high-need area. It’s a student focus, but it’s also a community focus as well.”

To date, the program has been well received by the student body and enough interest has been generated to fill several classes, according to Bennett. Those enrolled in the program conduct what the school dubs the Seahawks Café two to three times a semester. The café is, more or less, a hands-on project Pro Start students do to gain experience through turning the classroom into a café setting complete with ambient music and wait staff, creating a menu, marketing and advertising their products and serving food. The café project even goes in-depth in aspects like food delivery, hosts and hostesses and other staff positions that reflect a restaurant setting, Bennett said.

“They’re basically getting real-world training,” Bennett said. “My thing is the more hands-on things we can do, the better. They learn better with hands-on (projects, activities). It’s a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for the students who are interested in hospitality and tourism. It’s a fledgling program that has lots of potential. If they work really hard and earn their certification, they could move anywhere (and work).”

For more information about the ProStart program, visit http://www.nraef.org/ProStart.