CCA, Manila’s certificate course on Baking and Pastry Arts and the two-year program in Culinary Arts and Technology Management were granted accreditation by the accrediting commission of the ACFF, solidifying the position of CCA, Manila as the top culinary education institution in the country.

"The accreditation further establishes CCA, Manila as the leading institution not only in the Philippines but in Asia for producing the best, quality-trained Filipino chefs. It also supports the school’s mission of developing students’ culinary skills, while at the same time being ‘socially responsible food industry leaders,’" said Paz Sales, managing director of CCA, Manila.

Accreditation, such as the case in the Philippines, is given by The Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU), a service organization which accredits academic programs which meet commonly accepted standards of quality education. It is an accrediting body composed of different private educational institutions that stamp other schools with a quality standard attained for their programs. Once a school has the stamp of approval, students are ensured that the programs that they are enrolled in pass a high quality standard. But for CCA, Manila, which celebrates its 11th year last month, it pursued a higher vision with an international accreditation.

The ACF Foundation Accrediting Commission (ACFFAC) has already sent the official certificates for the two programs to CCA, Manila. The accreditation is widely regarded as a "symbol of professionalism." Specialized criteria and procedures have been established for evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether or not they are operating at established standards.

"The ACFFAC granted us a programmatic accreditation – a specialized accreditation which is a voluntary action on the part of the institution that requires curriculum, faculty, resources, support staff, and organizational structure to all meet or exceed quality standards," said Ms. Sales.

She added that the application started in 2004, when CCA, Manila president Annie Guerrero applied to ACFF for accreditation. A team of industry experts was sent to the Philippines in April 2006 to verify compliance with the standards.

"A team of three ACFFAC members, Chefs Harry Brockwell, David Jones and Michael Ty, did the ocular visit and stayed here for three days to interview the managers and students, go over the documents, observe classes, lectures and lab works. On the third day, they made an assessment to the president and general manager, Badjie Trinidad, and other school managers. The committee also made a report to the US about their observations considering differences of culture, difference of government rules and regulations," Sales explained.

After the report of the fact-finding team further evaluated, an official report was sent to CCA, Manila in August 2006 informing the school of the areas that they needed to work on. The school implemented an action plan regarding these areas and when they submitted a status report in May this year, the accrediting body approved the school’s application during the ACF’s annual convention in July and granted accreditation for two programs.

Ms. Sales revealed that the ACFF granted the accreditation because of the school’s emphasis on management skills as well as the holistic development of the students.

"They were particularly impressed by the school’s core values, which focus on how the students relate to people. We told them that when we make the syllabus, we consider three things: Knowledge, attitude and skills. Otherwise, you don’t have a total development of the student if you focus only on one aspect. What are we for being an educational institution if we don’t look at all the angles and make better persons out of them?" said Ms. Sales.

The accreditation will likewise give students an edge over other schools in terms of skills learned from the programs offered. Students who are graduates of accredited programs are eligible for ACF certification.

"An accreditation is actually an evaluation of the standard of your program, therefore if they know that you’re part of the ACF, they know that your program has been accepted in the international circle of the culinary industry. They are assured that students have been trained the way they want them trained. That’s the advantage – you are internationally accepted to be of good standing, having a quality, accredited curriculum," Ms. Sales added.

Ms. Sales said that the challenge now is to maintain the school’s good record with the ACFF. "We need to further improve the professional development of our teachers through instructional and technical skills updating. Thus, we will continuously upgrade ourselves to maintain this valuable accreditation," she concluded.

CCA Manila is located at 287 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. For inquiries, e-mail marketing@cca-manila.com; or visit website www.cca-manila.com.