In a festive setting in the “Mettingen” room of the ECONVENT conference venue in Esslingen, Environment State Secretary Andre Baumann presented certificates signed by Minister Untersteller to nine trainees from four businesses who are training as chefs and hotel specialists.
In the 2018/19 training year, the young people had acquired skills in four workshops entitled “Sustainability and ecological management in the hospitality industry for trainees in Baden-Württemberg 2018/2019” that enable them to put sustainability into practice in their own training business.
At the same time, the participants had to develop sustainable projects, which they have now presented at the closing ceremony to their own bosses and to representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, DEHOGA, politics and business.
Prof. Dr Sandra Rochnowski, who was responsible for the academic part of the second year of this education initiative, and Thomas Puchan of the ECOINN Hotel, who came up with the idea for this additional qualification for hospitality trainees, were pleased with the trainees’ achievements and were above all delighted by the interest the young people showed in the four workshops.
In his speech, State Secretary Andre Baumann spoke of a “sustainability virus that never lets go of anyone who takes a closer look at it!” In this spirit, supported by approving nods from, among others, Member of the State Parliament Niklas Fink, who was present,
he expressly welcomed this initiative by Rochnowski and Puchan and praised the voluntary commitment involved. Deputy DEHOGA Chief Executive Joachim Schönborn and Marion Peters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry agreed; Ms Peters also brought Puchan a gift, namely a certificate for 10 years of training young people at the ECOINN Hotel Esslingen.
In his welcome, Puchan also thanked Björn Luchterhand of the organic catering company of the same name in Stuttgart, who, also on a voluntary basis, contributed to the success of the series with a workshop on “Sustainable procurement in gastronomy”.
In addition to two trainees from the ECOINN Hotel Esslingen, two trainees each from the Badhotel Stauferland in Bad Boll and the Hotel Burg Staufeneck in Salach received their certificates from Andre Baumann; the remaining three went to trainees from the Hotel La Casa in Tübingen.