300 teenagers from 5 regions of Ukraine took part in the ‘Culinary Battle’ career guidance competition

About 300 teenagers from 5 regions of Ukraine participated in an incredible career guidance competition ‘Culinary Battle’. The DECIDE project supports such activities as part of the ‘DECIDE: VET’, which aims to pilot models of cooperation between government, education and business to develop a career guidance system for youth.

The culinary battle enabled the teenagers see how interesting working professions can be and what prospects and opportunities vocational education offers. At the same time, the participants tried themselves in different professions and realised what they were best at.

The competition was open to 8-9th grade pupils from DECIDE's partner regions, namely Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, and Chernihiv regions.

They were divided into teams of 4 participants each. Over the course of two days, the teams, under the mentorship of students from local vocational schools, took part in thematic masterclasses in various professions: cook, pastry chef, waiter, bartender.

Masterclasses and evaluation of the contest were conducted by the masters of industrial training of vocational schools, which hosted the Culinary Battle in a particular region.

At the end of the competition, the participants received awards in various categories.

This contest is organised by the NGO Culture of Food with the support of the Swiss-Ukrainian  project DECIDE, which is implemented in Ukraine by a consortium consisting of the NGOs DOCCU and PHZH with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.