Pancake pioneers at Stack & Still enhance careers through GCU Graduate Apprenticeship

Staff from pancake-pioneer company Stack & Still have had the opportunity to complete a Graduate Apprenticeship at Glasgow Caledonian University, as part of a unique career development programme.

Staff at the Scottish restaurant chain have the option to undertake a SCQF qualification with hospitality training body ITC Training Academy, which equipped staff with the entry requirements to apply towards a university degree.

With the support of management, staff were offered the chance to do a combined Graduate Apprenticeship in Business Management. The degree allows students to work and gain their degree at the same time.

Operations Chef and Business Support Manager Graeme Robertson and Clare Jackson, were amongst the staff who decided to take up the opportunity:

Working at Stack & Still

Graeme: “I’ve been there for four years now. In total, I’ve worked with the company for seven years but my role as Operations Chef involves helping out with the operational side of things back-of-house and making sure that everything is working properly.

Coming from a chef background, it was bit daunting at first to the have to be speaking to customers as well. Now, I’m at the point where I can train other staff to be more customer-facing.”

Clare: “The majority of the Operations roles involve supporting the business, which means doing whatever is required to do. Graeme is more focused on back-of-house, whereas I do a bit of everything. It also means making sure that each member of the team is comfortable with what they’re doing and helping them with anything that they might be a bit unsure about.

We’re just making pancakes, but the amount of things that happen behind the scenes to make them is unbelievable. People come to us for their pancakes, so need to make sure that the fundamentals of what we are offering is spot on. We now have seven different sites; six in Glasgow and one in London but no store is the same.  We also have two kiosk-style sites, which is a totally different service experience than what we offer in the restaurants.  It’s about making sure that all of these sites are operating how they should be.

The training that we offer to someone who works at the kiosk sites is totally different to how we would train in the restaurants. For example, the kiosks require chefs who can do both the back and front of house, which involves speaking to the customers as well.

I started working at Stack & Still around five years ago and I started as an assistant manager, so I was able to work my way up. We’re both very hands-on kind of workers; I especially like to ask lots of questions to make sure that I understand how to do something.”

Taking up the opportunity to study a Graduate Apprenticeship in Business Management

Graeme: “It started with ITC Training Academy, which is a company that offers hospitality training. Myself, Clare and some other staff had the opportunity to work towards our Level 8 SCQF (Scottish Credit Qualification Framework) in Hospitality Management . This took place once a month or sometimes once every fortnight and we were able to complete it online.”

Clare: “When we completed the Level 8 SCQF, we didn’t realise that it could open doors to allow us to go to university. One day, the owner of Stack & Still came to us and asked ‘What do you think about going to university?’ and I was shocked! I thought, why not – we will see if we get accepted! It suddenly felt more serious when it came to looking at the applications and writing a personal statement, which we hadn’t done before. I guess, because we were already in that educational setting, we thought that we could do it. In 10 years time, we don’t know where we might end up so we might as well give it a go. If we hadn’t competed the SCQF, I’m not sure I would have had the confidence to apply otherwise so I’m glad we did it.

We attend classes for two days a week and then work the rest of the week. University is totally online for us, which can be quite challenging as someone who learns by discussing.  I ask a lot of questions in our university group chat!”

Balancing studies with work at Stack & Still

Graeme: “We definitely enjoy it, even during the stressful days before a submission deadline! We have all went from never having to write in an academic style to doing it on a regular basis, as well as things like referencing. It’s definitely taught us how to be more disciplined, especially with balancing study, work and other aspects of life. The next few years of the degree will be tough, but we have the determination now to get it finished.

You can get a bit caught up on things happening outside of work and university but have it in the back of your mind that you still have an essay to submit!”

Clare: “Last week, we had a class on Ethics and the lecturer used a lot of different terminologies, and I find that I’m now starting to use the words when I’m at home! It really shows how much it gets you thinking even after the class.

We’re actually one of the only hospitality businesses within the course. Otherwise, it’s a real mix of government, councils, etc. They often talk about their systems, such as using intranets, etc. We’re a new company, so we don’t have systems like that yet! A lot of times, we are listening to the conversations and applying it to how it operates in our company.”

The benefits of studying a Graduate Apprenticeship

Graeme: “Since starting the course, it definitely gives you that new sense of confidence in the workplace. You’ll find yourself in a situation where you’re able to apply something that you learned in your classes and be part of the conversation. Beforehand, I might have felt a bit more hesitant to do that, but now we have the academic knowledge to back up what we’re saying.”

Clare: “We have only completed two modules so far, but they have been about something that I do in work nearly every single day. We studied Consumer Behaviour and Performance Management, and I’ve really taken a lot from that. Our HR team are probably fed up with me coming up with different suggestions based on what I’ve learned! I do think that it’s a good thing though; as a company, we should always strive to be better.

Our management have been so encouraging in supporting us to do this. It was strange to write our personal statements and really sell ourselves, but its helped me learn how to do that and also help others discover what they’re capable of doing as well.”

Find out more about GCU Graduate Apprenticeships on our webpage

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here