Budding restaurateurs, kitchen staff, and front-of-house can learn essential restaurant skills with a good internship program. Here, we outline some of the best practices you can implement to ensure that the next generation of restaurant staff and owners have the best knowledge to advance in their careers.
Introduction
To start, do you have the resources to take on an intern effectively? If you cannot provide meaningful direction and time dedicated to this training, then perhaps it’s not the best time to start an internship program.
Remember, a restaurant internship could be the best way for a young person to start their career in the hospitality field. These opportunities can be a great way to learn how to work as a team and get organized. Trade skills and best practices should be learned from highly functioning programs and not seen as a way to access free help.
To locate highly motivated students or potential interns, you might consider approaching nearby culinary schools or programs to find candidates. Additionally, think outside the box — there could be interns beyond just the kitchen or front-of-house. They could be in marketing, accounts, or management.
What makes a program great? Keep reading.
1. Outlining Tasks
Interns will most likely have minimal on-the-job work experience, so it’s imperative to outline expectations and deliverables from the start of their experience with your team. Before they begin, be specific about when you expect things to be completed and what they can do to improve. Constructive feedback is essential for growth.
Given the proper training, here are some different tasks that an intern might be able to help with:
- Prepare the room and the tables for the service.
- Help to present the menus, daily specials, drinks, etc.
- Take orders from customers.
- Serve dishes. Clear the tables if necessary.
- Help create social media. As a younger demographic, your intern might be best suited to succeed on various platforms, and such assignments might give them something to feel like a successful team member.
- Learning basic mise en place or knifework.
- Learning basic CPR or First Aid skills.
- Attending staff meetings or pre-service sessions to understand more of the processes behind the scenes of a restaurant.
2. Authentic Work Assignments
Providing interns with real work is the number one method to ensure the success of a program. Interns should be doing challenging work related to their major or future career goals. The organization needs to recognize this work as valuable and an asset to the entire team. The interns must understand timelines, importance, and how their tasks fit into the more outstanding organization. Be sure to rotate interns through different positions to have a holistic understanding of the restaurant’s operation.
3. Have an intern manager
Having a dedicated manager for your intern program is the best way to ensure that the process runs smoothly and helps the interns find success at your venue. This should be a point person for scheduling, reviews, and questions. If you do not have someone with the bandwidth to take on this responsibility, consider singular contract interns per department, or ask if your HR person is available.
4. Encourage team involvement.
An intern will only be successful if your entire team is behind the process. Be sure to communicate what the interns will and will not be responsible for. What duties will they have? Who will they report to? By clarifying exactly how the process works and encouraging your team to help in the process, everyone will be successful.
5. Consider a stipend.
Although you will be training and providing valuable work experience for your interns, they are giving their time. Hence, a stipend or allowance is the right thing to do (even if not practiced by everyone in the industry). At the minimum, consider a meal while on shift. Also, at the end of their term, be ready to write a recommendation letter (if the intern has earned this request).
Conclusion
Good interns can lead to excellent employees, and if they move on to other places, know that you’ve given your interns the best possible start they could have in the industry.
Have you run a successful internship program? What techniques did you use? Let us know!