Hands-on learning at St. Paul University culinary center

MANILA, Philippines -St. Paul University Quezon City has invested in a culinary center, a mini-hotel and other facilities to foster learning by doing in addition to lectures and readings. Educators at St. Paul’s University Quezon City (SPUQC) believe that lectures and books are not the only way students learn.  Others, especially those in fields like the culinary or performing arts, learn more effectively while doing the particular skills required by their discipline.

A graduate of SPUQC Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) course can easily plan and execute a menu, shop, prep, cook and serve a multi-course dinner including dishwashing afterwards

SPUQC also houses a mini hotel, a replica of an intensive care unit, as well as a laboratory for students of science-oriented courses. Its TV and radio studios were set up in earlier decades when the school was still an all-girls’ enclave already well known for its Communications course. All these are to ensure that graduates can easily make the transition from the campus to the real-world work milieu.

Rosario Ramos, HRM assistant program chairman, relates: “Our learning labs have particularly benefitted students who may not be very interested in lectures but do well in the practical skills.” These are often pupils who have great motor control, excellent hand-eye coordination and dexterity as against those who tend to be more analytical and logical or more expressive with words. 

HRM undergraduate Kevin Rayos states that because SPUQC has a limited population, students have greater access to the equipment and facilities than other students from universities with larger populations. Furthermore, teachers, many of whom are practitioners in their own industries, have more occasions to supervise their students. “Tinututukan kami,” he smiles.

Samantha So, an HRM senior, relates that because she had already learned to operate many of the kitchen equipment in her freshmen and sophomore year, she could easily meet the demands of being a buffet attendant and server at a membership resort club in the US where she did her training in her junior year.

Because students have had many occasions to learn by doing — in addition to learn through lectures and readings — they can easily adapt to the real world after graduation. In so doing, they make their school proud of their accomplishments.