Food Hygiene Certificate

GothicStirling

TCA wrote: »

Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)

Any recommendations?

This one.

GothicStirling

Denno666 wrote: »

Thanks, I think I will do the course - my only issue now is to decide whether to fork out £25 and get a nice shiny certificate through the post (ok, probably not shiny) or pay £15 and apparently you print it out yourself.

The online one is worthless. A level 2 course takes only a day, and I've always had a good laugh at them.

GothicStirling

trampdog wrote: »

Hiya,

I have had one for about 10 years now, and occasionally work at festivals in the summer - it is always requested. If you are looking for work within the catering industry - if EHO turn up it will be one of the first thing they ask the employers for. It is always good for employers to have one - and for you to keep up to date. Alternatively, some employers will pay for you to have this. I don't know in terms of 'training for employment' on your CV, but always a plus for the employer to know that you have done it.

I hope that helps.

The same one? You're supposed to renew every 3 years.

TCA

GothicStirling wrote: »

The online one is worthless

Worthless from whose point of view? An employer? I'd imagine most would be happy to be able to tick a box that says their staff are compliant.

You recommended CIEH approved and this below is. Still no good?

http://www.food-hygienecertificate.co.uk

GothicStirling

TCA wrote: »

Worthless from whose point of view? An employer? I'd imagine most would be happy to be able to tick a box that says their staff are compliant.

You recommended CIEH approved and this below is. Still no good?

http://www.food-hygienecertificate.co.uk

As an former Catering Manager its not just about ticking boxes. It's about quality assurance. If one of your employees cause someone to contract food poisoning its game over, EHO close down your business, you get landed with £20,000 fine and possibly a prison sentence. This comes from my managerial experience and from the mouth of an EHO Inspector.

A level 1 is useless, all catering jobs expect a minimum of 2 (higher for supervisory and management roles.)

£29 + VAT? No chance, you might as well go to the college and meet some people in the industry. Always good for horror stories.

If you insist on going online, please check out the company. I've never heard of that company you've linked. I did my most recent one through Learn Direct.

Also, be careful. If you live in Scotland, the requirements of a Food Hygiene course are more stringent than in England (down to the E-coli outbreak.)

GothicStirling

Before you part with your money, check the company out. There's no testimonials given on the website, makes all these claims but doesn't back them up. And I can't find anything else about them on Google outside of their webpage.

They claim to write the majority of training materials, but I've just pulled out the training manual that I did 2 weeks ago, and that published by the CIEH themselves.

TCA

GothicStirling wrote: »

As an former Catering Manager its not just about ticking boxes. It's about quality assurance.

If you insist on going online, please check out the company. I've never heard of that company you've linked.

Thanks for the detailed reply. That all makes sense. English isn't my wife's first language, so I'm not sure she could manage a day course and pass a test into the bargain. Basically she's after a catering job and her English tutor has recommended obtaining an online food hygiene certificate. Given your comments I'll follow up and find out why she's recommending this route. It might just be a case of something is better than nothing. Plenty jobs don't require a certificate but it's perhaps surprising that the ones that do aren't specific on accreditation or even just the level required.

TCA

GothicStirling wrote: »

Before you part with your money, check the company out. There's no testimonials given on the website, makes all these claims but doesn't back them up. And I can't find anything else about them on Google outside of their webpage.

I only linked that website because you mentioned the CIEH approval. If you Google, there's dozens of companies offering online study materials, testing and certification, my approach was to first rule out any with unsatisfactory accreditation. I might rule them all out based on your comments.

GothicStirling

I would find a college nearby that does the course, and then phone up the college and explain the situation. They might be able to explain to the trainer who can give her more one-to-one coaching.

Because food hygiene is so important, I would be very concerned about her doing this unassisted as it requires understanding about different type of contamination, pests and bacteria.

saintjammyswine

TCA wrote: »

Thanks for the detailed reply. That all makes sense. English isn't my wife's first language, so I'm not sure she could manage a day course and pass a test into the bargain. Basically she's after a catering job and her English tutor has recommended obtaining an online food hygiene certificate. Given your comments I'll follow up and find out why she's recommending this route. It might just be a case of something is better than nothing. Plenty jobs don't require a certificate but it's perhaps surprising that the ones that do aren't specific on accreditation or even just the level required.

The multiple choice test at the end of the day is available, through prior arrangement in many different languages. The day of training however, will usually be in English.