Hospitality & Catering

It starts with you!

Get career ready with us and unlock your potential today, view our range of Hospitality and Catering courses and apply to study at the No.1 Further Education College in Greater Manchester for achievement*.

Aged 16-18? Apply now

Aged 19+? Apply now

If you’re hungry for a career in Hospitality and Catering and you've obtained the necessary entry requirements, then you'll have the opportunity to join our Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality and Catering.

Through the Industry Excellence Academy you’ll have access to academy sessions – where you’ll create dishes under the guidance of critically acclaimed and rosette awarded chefs, participation in open question and answer sessions with industry leaders, work placements in prestigious hotels and restaurants and visits to restaurants to see best practice in action

Alternatively, if you’re 16-18 you'll join our Centre of Excellence for Hospitality and Catering - the heart of our vibrant learning experience and the perfect starter if you’re hungry to learn.

Working together in a focused and fun environment we will provide you with the knowledge, skills, experience and employability to start to shape your future and take the first steps into this fresh and exciting industry and towards your dream.

Whichever level you start at, we offer qualifications focused on cooking, baking and patisserie and catering services from Level 1 to Level 3 that can enable you to create a successful future in the fast-growing hospitality and catering industry.

Cookery Skills

If you want to become a chef or work in a kitchen in a café or restaurant, one of our Cookery Studies or Professional Cookery Studies could be the perfect choice to build on your home-grown passion and start your valuable preparation to a future within the industry.

Food and Beverage Service

A career in the hospitality and catering industry isn’t confined to the kitchen. If you’re organised, flexible, a great team player and love talking to people, you might find that one of our Food and Beverage Service qualifications is a perfect fit. Whether the dream is to become a restaurant manager, run your own cafe or work in a customer orientated role serving food and drink, this is a great place to explore this dynamic industry sector.

Patisserie and Confectionery

Our Patisserie and Confectionery qualifications are perfect if you you’ve got a passion for baking and want to become a pastry chef, baker or cake-maker and produce perfect profiteroles, excellent éclairs, delicious desserts or beautiful bread.

Browse our courses

Are you looking to perfect your passion for pastry, channel your love of baking or do you just want to try something new?

We have a range of low-cost evening courses available to adults of any ability and experience.

Whether you want to brush up on cake decoration, create perfect cupcakes, or learn about vegan or gluten free baking, our industry focused courses and expert tutors will help you to impress with a wide range of custom-made creations.

• Basic Cake Decoration
• Cakes, Bakes and Treats
• Intermediate Cake Decoration
• Hobby Bread Course

Browse short courses and apply

With a wealth of experience across the hospitality and catering industry, our team is perfectly placed to support and guide you to a successful career.

You’ll learn from their experiences managing, running and training staff at successful luxury hotels and restaurants, specialised bakeries and patisseries.

Passionate about teaching the next generation of hospitality and catering professionals, they are constantly ensuring their knowledge and skills are up-to-date by regularly attending skills sessions and continuing to work in industry.

Get to know some of our tutors:

Jill Riley - Assistant Principal 

Jill has worked in further education for over 30 years. She is passionate about enabling students to be the best they can be, so that they can progress into exciting and fulfilling careers.

Howard Wallace - Head of Department

Howard has taught at the College for almost 20 years. After training as a chef, he worked for 16 years in various hotels and restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Waterside Inn under Michel Roux. He became a Chef Lecturer to share his knowledge and experience with aspiring chefs.

Mark Cooper - Hospitality and Catering Course Leader

Mark Cooper is a Swiss trained baker and confectioner and a Master Patissier. After gaining this accolade whilst working in Germany, Mark gained over 30 years’ experience in luxury 5* hotels as an Executive Pastry Chef working across the globe. He has also been a manager in specialist bakeries and patisseries and has led new product development teams both nationally and internationally. Mark has been teaching in further education for five years, where he delivers full time and part time courses in bakery, patisserie and cake decorating.

David Hodgeon - Food and Beverage Service Tutor and College Restaurant Manager

David joined the College in 2022 after working for a multinational hotel chain and Gleneagles. He entered education to share his experience and develop the future hospitality workforce. Since then, he has involved students in prestigious events like the British Grand Prix, Royal Ascot and Test match cricket, helping them enhance their skills and succeed in their careers.

Mike Parkinson - Tutor

Mike joined the team in 2021 as a Tutor with over 11 years of teaching experience. With over 30 years in the hospitality industry, he has worked in fine dining establishments, including rosette and Michelin-starred venues, from luxury hotels to high-end restaurants. Passionate about inspiring future culinary professionals, Mike is classically trained and has worked in England, Scotland, Jersey, and France.

At our new 1853 training restaurant at City Campus Manchester, you’ll dine in a friendly and relaxed environment, where our service team will host you for lunch or dinner and serve you a selection of high-quality food.

You’ll be given special attention by our team and will enjoy a menu that’s always changing and innovating to reflect local, seasonable produce and the skills & talents of our chefs who are working and training in our state-of-the-art kitchen.

Run by students in our Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality and Catering, our 40-seat restaurant and bar will also have street level access so passers-by alike can enjoy the tasteful talents of our students dishes.  

More information can be found here

Or why not take a trip to our relaxed and friendly Restaurant 1931 at our Wythenshawe campus?

Dive into a classic dish or explore the new and innovative, experience the flavours of sustainably sourced, local and seasonal produce, professionally prepared and served to make a memory not just a meal.

Food IS an adventure…just sit back and enjoy!

For bookings at Wythenshawe please call 0161 674 3409.

Our Hospitality and Catering courses are taught at our Harpurhey and Wythenshawe campuses and in brand new industry standard facilities at our state-of-the-art City Campus Manchester.

Explore our amazing new facilities

City Campus Manchester

In Autumn 2022 we opened the doors to our brand new City Campus Manchester, located just a two-minute walk from Manchester Victoria Station.

Here you’ll find brand new industry-standard hospitality and catering facilities developed specifically for you and your course.

This includes 1853, our 40 seat restaurant and bar run by the students with a live stream of the kitchen into the restaurant training kitchen, a bakery, a facility for recording our masterclasses with live TV streaming and recording for playback, and a chocolate workstation with window overlooking the restaurant.

Harpurhey

Our Harpurhey Campus is equipped with two brand new training kitchens and a technical training facility, so students on our Culinary Skills and Professional Cookery courses can hone their skills in industry-standard facilities.

We’ve also got a new baking kitchen for our Bakery, Confectionary and Patisserie courses and all our facilities at Harpurhey are equipped with all the latest kitchen equipment. 

The comfortable, environmentally-friendly site is made up of a bright modern building and the restored Harpurhey Baths, a Grade II listed building which the College has transformed into an award-winning exhibition space for students and the community.

Wythenshawe

At our Wythenshawe campus in south Manchester you’ll find another of our amazing training restaurants.

Our Restaurant 1931 is more relaxed and contemporary but gives you the opportunity to put what you have learnt to practice in a fast-paced restaurant environment with real paying customers.

You’ll serve and cook a range of traditional bistro style seasonal dishes to reflect the time of year and to help vary the range of techniques and foods you cook with.

Restaurant 1931 is open to students and staff for lunch during term time.

The Manchester College is committed to ensuring all our students receive the support they may need to achieve and enjoy college. We do this in a number of different ways including:

• Student Experience Support Team
• Careers Employability & Welfare
• Pastoral Support Officers
• Supported Learning

We also offer a bespoke transition service to new applicants with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), accessibility or medical need.

Find out more about our student support offer:

Find out even more about our Hospitality and Catering department in our subject area guide or on our YouTube playlist:

Download our subject area guide

Watch our YouTube playlist

Stay up-to-date with everything that's going on in our Hospitality and Catering department via social media:

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Go further with our Centre of Excellence for Adult Education and study a 19+ adult course starting in 2023/24! 

Browse our wide range of courses and apply now.

Browse 19+ adult courses