Dinner ladies from Helston Community College have been given a taste of how to provide healthier meals as part of a new training scheme.

It has proved so successful that it is now being rolled out across Cornwall.

The team from Helston first took part in the level one award in “providing healthier school meals,” a work place learning project, They have now gone on to start apprenticeships in hospitality services.

Helen Hearne, catering supervisor at Helston Community College, said: “The course was fantastic. I was very proud of our girls, it was great to see them all working together.

“We learned a lot of the latest legislation that we were not aware of. Hands on exercises were great fun – but very informative. It was nice to get the old grey cells working again.”

The course was run by Truro and Penwith College, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF).

Louise Williamson, ESF work place learning coordinator Truro and Penwith College, said: “This is an excellent example of how the project can bring people into education and training by identifying a need in the workplace and fulfilling that need.

“Our project staff worked hard to engage with learners with few or no qualifications, and built up their confidence with a short qualification which gave them confidence to progress.”

This particular project began when Helston Community College identified a lack of team morale, due to the distribution of staff around a large campus. Truro and Penwith College specialists developed a bespoke training package that brought the entire team together.