Many people who want to go into the travel and tourism industry have never had the benefits of academic travel and tourism curriculum explained to them, so they do not understand why it is so important to get an education in order to excel in this industry. Although becoming a travel agent or working for an airline doesn’t necessarily require a degree, many employers in these and other industries prefer educated applicants, and some jobs require it. If you are passionate about this industry and have the education to prove how qualified you are, you will be more likely to get the travel and tourism jobs you’ve dreamed of.

Travel and tourism curriculum varies depending on the school you’re attending, the degree or certificate you’re going after and the specialization you are studying. You will most likely take courses in business and management as well as classes about travel consulting, accounting, restaurant and hospitality operations, communications, international travel and more. If you earn a bachelor’s degree from a traditional four-year university you will also need to take general courses in subjects like math, science, English and history to graduate.

Although this type of degree or training program is not required for many of the available travel and tourism jobs, it will prepare you for a more lucrative career and make you a more attractive applicant when you begin looking for employment. The curriculum will vary depending on whether you are looking for basic credentials or a certificate or degree, but in any case you will learn valuable lessons about the industry. You will also have opportunities to complete internship programs that provide hands-on experience in the travel and tourism industry. For this reason you may want to consider attending school in an area where travel and tourism are popular.

There are travel and tourism curriculum programs at online universities, vocational schools, community colleges and traditional four-year colleges and universities. It would be wise to explore all your options and choose the best path for your particular career goals. With the right training, a rewarding career in the travel and tourism industry awaits.

Institutions offering quality Travel and Tourism Management Programs include Strayer University, Heald College, Schiller International University, Sullivan University, National College, and The University of Phoenix.

Find the perfect Travel and Tourism School or Travel and Tourism College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Culinary school internship programs are a vital part of the education and training process as you work towards a career as a chef or as any other type of culinary professional. During your internship you will not only improve and refine your skills in the kitchen, you will also make contacts in the culinary industry and learn how the restaurant business works. Your school may require a three-month or six-month internship, in which case you must find a program that fulfills the school’s requirements. Even if your culinary school doesn’t require an internship, though, it is so beneficial that you’d be better off doing it anyway.

There are culinary school internship programs in bakeries, catering businesses, country clubs, food service companies, pastry shops, resorts and, of course, restaurants. The internship you choose should reflect the specific career you want to go into. This temporary and probably unpaid position could potentially lead to a job offer once you’re done with school, so you should definitely choose a place where you would actually want to work.

The first step to getting into a good culinary school internship program is learning about your school’s criteria and what types of programs they will consider for academic credit. You may need to be in good academic standing to qualify for an internship, so make sure you’re keeping up your grades. There may also be prerequisite courses you will need to have taken before you can do an internship through your school, so make sure you have those classes and exams out of the way first.

Before you go any further, at this point it would be a good idea to talk with a career services counselor at your school. Give the counselor a copy of your résumé and tell him or her about your goals; he or she should be able to advise you on a suitable business or restaurant where you can apply for an internship. Then you can begin the process of applying and interviewing for internships. Make the most of this valuable experience—it could be the first real step from school to your dream career.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts Program today and start your path to a rewarding career.

So you’re wondering, “Where do culinary school graduates work?” Maybe you are thinking of getting a culinary degree, or maybe you’re just curious. The fact is that culinary graduates can take many different career paths. Some people might assume that the goal of any culinary student is to become a chef. While many culinary grads do take this career path, many other options are available. So, if you’re considering the question, where do culinary school graduates work, read on and see what other options are out there besides simply becoming a chef or cook in a restaurant.

Caterer: If you’re a good planner, this would be an excellent career to go into after culinary school. Caterers can do everything from planning the hors d’oeuvres and dinner menu to choosing the napkin colors to organizing the dishwashing staff for events such as anniversaries, birthdays, parties, weddings and other events.

Cookbook Editor: A culinary school graduate with a flair for the English language and an eye for details would make an excellent cookbook editor. It is important that all the recipes are free from mistakes, and if you have culinary and literary skills you can make sure this happens.

Food Service Manager: People with good leadership skills often become food service managers after culinary school. You will hire the staff, purchase the food inventory, handle all the accounts and make sure the restaurant is running like a well-oiled machine.

Pastry Chef: This is a great option if you want to be a chef and you have a real artistic side as well as a sweet tooth. As a pastry chef you can create everything from cookies and brownies to elaborate candies and pastries to wedding cakes and other spectacular deserts.

Specialty Food Shop Owner: Culinary school graduates with entrepreneurial spirits and the capital to invest may consider purchasing a retail space and starting their own specialty food shop. These shop owners must have culinary knowledge and a good understanding of the foods they’re ordering, so culinary school grads tend to do well in this position.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Culinary school accreditation is one of the first things you should consider if you are thinking about getting an education in the culinary arts. If you are trying to choose which schools to apply to, checking their accreditation can help simplify your choices. There are independent and neutral accrediting bodies that approve culinary schools based on criteria such as the extensiveness of the courses, number of professors, quality of instruction and the student services offered. The American Culinary Federation and other regional accrediting bodies have high standards, and the schools they approve will look good on a resume when you go to apply for jobs.

Not only does culinary school accreditation ensure a good looking resume; it also ensures that you will be able to apply for and receive financial aid from the government. The United States Department of Education provides loans and grants for all sorts of students, but only if they are attending accredited schools. You may also not be qualified to enter into a graduate program if you get your culinary degree from a non-accredited school. If you just want to take a few classes and enhance your cooking skills, a non-accredited school might be just fine, but if you have some serious career goals in mind, you need to find an accredited school.

It is important to do your homework and learn about the culinary school accreditation before applying for any particular programs. Once you have one or several schools picked out to apply to, do a little research, and if they are accredited, make sure to look into the reputation and licensing requirements of the accrediting agency that gave them the stamp of approval. Also, see if they appear in the online database of accredited schools accessed through the Department of Education Web site. There are many online resources that allow you to gain valuable information about the accreditation of any culinary school or other academic program.

Learning about the accreditation of a culinary school and researching the programs they offer is an important step in your career. This will ensure that the education you get will provide a solid foundation to build your professional life upon.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

A hospitality management degree can prepare you for a rewarding career in the hotel, restaurant, cruise ship, spa, resort or other entertainment and leisure industries. These industries are extremely lucrative, and there is a great deal of work all over the world in management positions. If you earn a hospitality management degree, you will be well on your way to a career that can really take you places.        

The curriculum involved in a hospitality management degree will vary depending on the school you attend, the specialization you choose and the specific degree you are going after (associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s). A typical Bachelor of Science degree in hospitality management will require courses such as Mathematical Analysis for Business, Economic Analysis, and English/Written Composition courses. Then you can begin the core curriculum for the hospitality management degree, which may include the following courses:

• Introduction to Hotel Management
• Introduction to Restaurant & Institutional Food Service
• Introduction to Commercial Recreation & Resort Management
• Principles of Financial Accounting
• Principles of Managerial Accounting
• Hospitality Management Law
• Business Statistics
• Event Planning Management
• Business Finance
• Foods, Production & Service
• Foodservice Systems Management
• Introduction to Management and Organizational Behavior
• Marketing
• Hospitality Human Resource Management
• Hotel Operations

There will also probably be an internship and seminar course required for completion of a hospitality management degree, which is an important component of the curriculum. This will provide an opportunity to get hands on experience in the field, to network and to meet potential future employers. Then you will be more prepared to enter the hospitality management career of your choice.

Once you’re working in the field you will have great opportunities set out before you. While entry level hospitality managers fresh out of college may only earn $25,000 annually, it will not take long to gain experience and move into more lucrative positions making $80,000 or more annually. The job outlook is also good, as the hospitality industry in the United States is currently searching for approximately 200,000 new executives in hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas and wineries.

Institutions offering quality Hospitality Management Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, Strayer University, Everest University, and The University of Phoenix.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Hospitality Management College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Food scientist jobs are important to our society, as these individuals are responsible for researching and developing ways to improve the food and beverage products we consume on a daily basis. The most common career options in this field are as food science technicians because the actual scientists who oversee many of the tests typically have advanced degrees at the doctoral level. The degrees needed for food science technicians are typically bachelor’s degrees, and these important professionals work very close with scientists in all the tests they conduct.

Biological technicians, chemical technicians, environmental science technicians and food technicians all work in similar fields. Food scientist jobs at the technician level require performing tests on food and agricultural products, scrutinizing the results and keeping records under the supervision of a head scientist. You may also be required to maintain inventories of equipment and order lab supplies as needed. You may work in a lab in an urban city or in a more remote location.

The most important career information you need to know is the education and training required for food science technicians. While the top food scientist jobs require doctoral degrees and a great deal of research experience, food science technician jobs may only require a two-year associate’s degree in applied science. Most technicians have bachelor’s degrees in fields such as biology or chemistry, though, which helps boost your resume and salary potential. An internship will also help provide more opportunities to advance your new career in the earliest stages after college graduation.

The average annual salary for food science technicians in the United States is $42,270, but there is room for advancement. The salary may also depend on where you work, what kind of lab you work for, where you went to school and how much experience you had when you started the job. And who knows, maybe you’ll even decide to continue your education and pursue the top food scientist jobs with the responsibilities of managing entire laboratories. With additional education you can do just about anything in this field.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

With a travel and tourism degree, there are many different career paths you can take. Each travel and tourism course you take will help in your goal of becoming a travel agent, hotel manager, cruise ship event director, tour planner or other hospitality-related specialist. The following are considered to be the top 10 travel and tourism programs at colleges and universities in the United States:

1. Johnson and Wales University: You can complete one of many four-year travel and tourism programs at campuses in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina or Rhode Island.
2. University of Central Florida: Complete a certificate, a bachelor’s or master’s degree in hospitality management, and while you’re at it complete an internship at one of the many local theme parks, resorts or hotels.
3. University of Hawaii at Manoa: This island university offers a well-respected travel and tourism degree in four specializations. You will also be able to network and make connections with leaders in the travel and hospitality industry.
4. Brigham Young University, Hawaii: BYU’s Hawaii campus ranks #4 in U.S. News’ list of comprehensive colleges for bachelor’s degrees, and it’s in the perfect location for internships and networking.
5. University of New Hampshire: With a rich history, prime east coast location, small student body size and high educational standards, you’ll be able to start your career path straight out of college.
6. San Diego State University: This CSU campus with a freshmen retention rate of 81 percent is located in a popular U.S. travel destination with many hotels, resorts, travel agencies and cruise ship companies.
7. University of Phoenix: This is one of the top online universities in the nation with numerous degree options including a BS in Business/Hospitality.
8. Penn Foster Career School: If you’re looking to start working as a travel and tourism specialist or hotel/restaurant manager, a career diploma from this school will put you on the right path.
9. Walden University: This online university offers a BS in Business Admin-Management, MS in Leadership-General Management and Ph.D. in Mgmt that are ideal for the travel and tourism industry.
10. American InterContinental University: With a Bachelor of Business Administration in Operations Management or MBA from this career-focused university, you’ll be well on your way to the job of your dreams.

Find the perfect Travel and Tourism College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Chef de cuisine jobs require quite a bit of experience, training and talent; this is definitely not a position you can expect to hold straight out of culinary school. The chef de cuisine is a French term for the professional chef who is in charge of the kitchen, which in American English would translate to the executive chef or head chef. The chef des cuisine salaries range from $30,000 a year at a prepared foods company to $80,000 or more at a fine restaurant in a big city.

There are chef de cuisine jobs in all sorts of restaurants in every city, as well as in prepared foods and catering companies, hotels, resorts, cruise ships, retirement communities, government or corporate offices and other hospitality-related facilities. Typically, the chef de cuisine is the one in charge who creates the menus and leads the team, but in a chain restaurant or hotel or cruise ship setting, there may be strict limitations as to what can be prepared and served. The most prestigious chef de cuisine jobs are in the restaurants that are owned or operated at least in part by the chef de cuisine because the chef will thus have complete control over their menu.

A chef de cuisine will typically have a sous chef working as a direct assistant who is considered to be the second in the chain of command. Beneath that are the chefs de partie, also known as station chefs or line cooks, who will be in charge of a specific area of the food production such as preparing the meats or chopping the vegetables. Then there are the expeditors who take orders from the dining room to relay to the kitchen and perhaps put finishing touches on the dishes.

Chef de cuisine salaries vary greatly depending on such factors as the prestige of the restaurant or facility, the city it is located in, the experience of the chef and many other factors, but it is a job with many rewards for those who enjoy using their creative talents in the kitchen.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts College today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Becoming a presidential chef is an extremely high honor, and one that is only bestowed on a new chef every several years.  Some chefs are able to make this their career for many years, spanning numerous presidencies.  Most of the time, however, these jobs last four to eight years depending on how long one president is in office for.  Since the First Lady picks the presidential chef, most want to leave their own legacy on White House entertaining.  So what exactly does a presidential chef do?  It is certainly different from any other culinary arts job out there.  

Presidential chefs do not usually apply for the job; it is typically the First Lady who seeks them out, after which they must go through rigorous tastings to be sure they are up to the task.  This is not one of the career options that any chef-in-training should assume they can just work their way up to – this is a rare position that is extremely difficult to obtain.  The presidential chef cooks all the meals for the first families, including children, and heads up the food preparation for all major White House events.  They have a full staff working beneath them and a fully stocked kitchen with all the first family’s favorites, and are prepared to do everything from cooking daily meals to coordinating catering for formal affairs. 

The career information for this job is straight to the point – you earn $80,000 to $100,000 a year, you must be available to work all the time, you must live in Washington DC, and there have never been chefs in this position who did not have culinary degrees and extensive experience.  The chef that Hillary Clinton hired, Walter Scheib, worked in the White House for 11 years before Laura Bush decided to let him go and promote his assistant, Cristeta Comerford, who was the first and only female presidential chef in the United States.  She still holds this coveted position, so any culinary arts superstars looking to get into the White House might have to wait a few years before another opening is available.   

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts Program today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Training to become a chef can get pricey, but fortunately there are culinary scholarships that help to reduce the burden and make it possible for many talented young chefs to get the education they need. Various organizations offer scholarships, grants and student aid for students attending culinary schools or programs. Individual schools may also offer student funding opportunities. Following are the top 10 culinary scholarships or resources that are available:

• The American Academy of Chefs: The academy offers culinary scholarships through the American Culinary Federation Foundation for high school students seeking culinary or pastry degrees, college students currently in such programs, professional chefs looking to further their education and student teams competing in Regionals or Nationals.

• International Association of Culinary Professionals Foundation: The foundation, located in Louisville, Kentucky, offers many resources for culinary students looking for funding.

• The Restaurant School: This institution awards $4,000 culinary scholarships to incoming freshman entering two-year or four-year programs in Culinary Arts or Pastry Arts.

• Scholarship Information from Starchefs: This organization provides detailed information on numerous culinary scholarships including the Starchefs/New England Culinary Institute (NECI) Scholarship Fund.

• Scholarship Listings from Chef2Chef: Current and prospective students can come to this online resource for information on the Chef2Chef Scholarship Fund as well as a list of organizations that have awarded culinary scholarships.

• Women Chefs & Restaurateurs: The WCR Scholarship & Internship Program disburses a total of $100,000 annually to aid in its members’ professional development.

• The Culinary Trust – IACP: This is the philanthropic wing of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, which offers culinary scholarships to students and professionals in the field.

• The James Beard Foundation Individual School Scholarships: This is a comprehensive list of all the culinary scholarships offered by individual schools.

• James Beard Foundation – Friends of James Beard Scholarships: These culinary scholarships are awarded in the names of people and groups that have donated money, raised funds and/or held events for the foundation.

• The Charlie Trotter Culinary Education Foundation: This foundation provides culinary scholarships while promoting education and an interest in food and cooking to Chicago youth.