Lake Michigan College will be offering two new programs this fall: culinary management and truck driving training.

Graduates from culinary management, a two-year program, will earn an associate’s degree in hospitality with a culinary emphasis.

Culinary management students receive the same hands-on culinary training as culinary arts students, with an added focus on business issues.

Chris Woodruff, LMC hospitality management program chair, said students would be taught marketing skills, human resource management, legal issues and financial analysis.

“We not only teach them how to make a plate nice — which they will definitely learn — but they also learn the business side to make them more well-rounded,” he said.

Offering the course was based on the demand in southwestern Michigan for qualified kitchen and restaurant managers. Woodruff said there were more than 600 culinary management jobs in the area in the past calendar year.

“We’ve been hearing it for the past couple years. There is a big need for qualified people in the back of the house,” he said.

For more information, contact Woodruff by phone at (269) 927-8868 or by email at woodruff@lakemichigancollege.edu.

 

Truck driving training

 

Graduates of the truck driving training program will receive a certificate of completion from the college and be qualified for a class “A” commercial driver’s license. The initial certificate will be for 18 credit hours and students can use these credits toward a degree in general technologies.

The program can be completed in one semester with a strong focus on CDL-A Basic Certification and Heavy Equipment Training. Graduates are qualified to not only operate a tractor-trailer, but also a backhoe, dozer and excavators in construction and maintenance fields.

LMC has contracted with International Trucking School (ITS) to provide the training, trucks and driving range. ITS is based in Canton and has six training locations in the state, including Kalamazoo, Glen Oaks Community College and Monroe Community College.