Catering Assistant Apprentice
ASPENS-SERVICES LIMITED
Leighton Buzzard, Luton
Closes in 13 days (Thursday 19 November 2026)
Posted on 6 November 2026
Contents
Summary
The apprenticeship will cover the following units to prepare you for a career in the catering industry:
- Induction
- Food Production
- Nutrition & Allergens
- Kitchen Compliance
- The Commercial Kitchen
- Self & Others
- EPA
- Wage
-
£12,074 a year
- Training course
- Production chef (level 2)
- Hours
-
Monday to Friday, 25 hours per week, between 9.00am - 3.00pm.
To be discussed on an individual basis.
25 hours a week
- Start date
-
Friday 1 January 2027
- Duration
-
1 year 6 months
- Positions available
-
2
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
You’ll be making a real difference through responsibilities that include:
- Customer Interaction: Working on the tills during service (don’t worry, full training is provided!)
- Front-Line Service: Providing friendly, polite customer service to all students and staff
- Essential Support: Assisting the team with basic food preparation
- Maintaining Standards: Ensuring a safe, clean kitchen environment and meeting Health and Safety compliance
Where you'll work
You can select which locations you want to apply for in your application on Find an apprenticeship.
This apprenticeship is available in these locations:
- 1 Bungalow, Cedars Upper School, Mentmore Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2AE
- Gipsy Lane, Luton, LU1 3GF
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
ASPENS-SERVICES LIMITED
Training course
Production chef (level 2)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Prepare and cook pre-portioned fresh and frozen meat, fish, and poultry to business standards.
- Prepare and cook fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables to business standards.
- Prepare salad vegetables to business standards.
- Cook poached, simmered, steamed, boiled, braised, stewed, baked, grilled, and fried dishes.
- Regenerate dried and frozen ingredients and dishes.
- Undertake stock control, storage, and rotation.
- Communicate professionally with colleagues, line managers, stakeholders, and customers.
- Work as part of a team to support service delivery.
- Follow specifications to produce, portion, and present food.
- Manage own time to ensure allocated tasks are completed.
- Use techniques for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing to support self and others, including asking for and giving help with daily tasks.
- Use feedback to improve own performance.
- Prepare and close down an area for service.
- Use problem solving techniques to resolve routine and non-routine issues within scope of own role.
- Maintain prep and par levels according to business need.
- Clean and maintain manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, and technology.
- Follow standard operating procedures to select and safely use appropriate knives and boards for the task, for example red handled knife and red board for raw meat.
- Monitor and record food temperatures and manage allergens during preparation, cooking, holding, and serving.
- Apply hygiene management techniques to maintain a safe clean work environment, for example COSHH, personal hygiene, and uniform.
- Reduce the waste of resources, acting to measure and reduce plate waste, exercise portion control, and maximise yield.
- Comply with health and safety legislation, regulations, guidelines and procedures, including stress management.
- Follow equity, diversity, and inclusion legislation and organisational policies.
- Deliver to key performance indicators to support the production, performance, and budget within own area of responsibility.
- Use manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, machinery, and technology.
- Prepare and cook pre-portioned fresh and frozen meat, fish, and poultry to business standards.
- Prepare and cook fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables to business standards.
- Prepare salad vegetables to business standards.
- Cook poached, simmered, steamed, boiled, braised, stewed, baked, grilled, and fried dishes.
- Regenerate dried and frozen ingredients and dishes.
- Undertake stock control, storage, and rotation.
- Communicate professionally with colleagues, line managers, stakeholders, and customers.
- Work as part of a team to support service delivery.
- Follow specifications to produce, portion, and present food.
- Manage own time to ensure allocated tasks are completed.
- Use techniques for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing to support self and others, including asking for and giving help with daily tasks.
- Use feedback to improve own performance.
- Prepare and close down an area for service.
- Use problem solving techniques to resolve routine and non-routine issues within scope of own role.
- Maintain prep and par levels according to business need.
- Clean and maintain manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, and technology.
- Follow standard operating procedures to select and safely use appropriate knives and boards for the task, for example red handled knife and red board for raw meat.
- Monitor and record food temperatures and manage allergens during preparation, cooking, holding, and serving.
- Apply hygiene management techniques to maintain a safe clean work environment, for example COSHH, personal hygiene, and uniform.
- Reduce the waste of resources, acting to measure and reduce plate waste, exercise portion control, and maximise yield.
- Comply with health and safety legislation, regulations, guidelines and procedures, including stress management.
- Follow equity, diversity, and inclusion legislation and organisational policies.
- Deliver to key performance indicators to support the production, performance, and budget within own area of responsibility.
- Use manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, machinery, and technology.
Training schedule
Training will be delivered online and at your workplace.
Requirements
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- Organisation skills
- Customer care skills
- Team working
- Patience
Other requirements
DBS check.
About this employer
Aspens Services Ltd is a market leading contract catering company specialising in school food. By combining our understanding of the education sector and our knowledge of what’s on trend in the food world, we encourage creativity and excitement in our kitchens, allowing our teams to do what they do best and provide fantastic food experiences for the children. By providing excellent care and services to both clients and children, we have ensured the successful growth of the company and to keep up with the rapid pace of this growth, we are now looking for an Apprentice Chef! With over 1000 sites we are one of the top 100 fastest growing independent companies in the UK with great career opportunities! If you’re passionate about skills development, we want to hear from you
https://www.aspens-services.co.uk/ (opens in new tab)
Company benefits
- Access to our Employee Wellbeing and Reward Platform
- Pension
- Access to development courses and qualifications
After this apprenticeship
Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay (opens in new tab).
After achievement of this apprenticeship, you could move on to the Level 3 Senior Production Chef apprenticeship.
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
ASPENS-SERVICES LIMITED
info@theacademyapprenticeships.com
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000062913.
Apply now
Closes in 13 days (Thursday 19 November 2026)
After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.