Posted: 10/03/10
French fortnight at West Nottinghamshire College
Staff and students at West Nottinghamshire College said ‘bienvenue’ yesterday to a group of French teachers from various colleges in the Alsace region of France, as they arrived to spend a week discovering the Mansfield-based college.
The college has been welcoming visitors from the Alsace region for several years as part of exchange visits, aimed at encouraging and promoting reciprocal opportunities for staff and students, exchange good practice between the two regions and develop work placement opportunities.
During this week’s visit the teachers will be touring various college sites as well as spending time shadowing colleagues in sport, business, engineering and general education. A visit to Nottingham City Transport and a trip to Lincoln have also been arranged.
As the group from the Alsace region depart (16 March), the college will then welcome a second group of French colleagues for a week. Eight pastry chefs from Espace Formations des Metiers et de l’Artisanat College, near Lyon, will be visiting the college’s catering curriculum and sharing their creative skills with professional cookery students.
During their stay, the chefs and students will travel to a farmers’ market in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, visit a pork pie factory and the meat processing plant at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. A tour of a brewery in Nottingham has also been planned into their busy schedule.
West Notts students will have the opportunity to practise their sugar craft skills with the French chefs, as they decorate Easter eggs which will be raffled for charity later in the week (18 March). The chefs will also be demonstrating the art of creating ‘petits fours’ to staff and students.
A ‘ready, steady, cook’ activity will take place in the kitchens of the college’s Number 19 Brasserie, with visiting chefs pairing up with students for a timed cookery challenge on Wednesday (17 March).
In October, the college will welcome hairdressing and catering students from Espace Formations des Metiers et de l’Artisanat College and students from Mansfield will then visit France in March next year to experience life in a French college.
