If you have a life-long, deep-dished passion for pizza, you should consider getting schooled in the ways of the pie.
A university in the UK and Pizza Hut had recently struck an agreement over offering a school-based program on making pizza.
"For the next five years, Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K. has teamed up with Pizza Hut, offering an apprenticeship program for 1,500 students," Time reported. "The curriculum will cover everything from food production to financial analysis."
"The launch of our apprenticeships comes at an exciting time for our business as we continue to make headway in our refurbishment programme, Pizza hut Restaurants HR director Kathryn Austin told Manchester Evening News. "Over the next few years we will work hard to provide our apprentices and team members with the best training and development so that we can equip them with skills for life, not just for working in a restaurant."
The program got the endorsement of skills minister Nick Boles, who encouraged "more businesses to take the lead from companies like Pizza Hut Restaurants to start or expand their apprenticeship programmes."
The said apprenticeship will run at the university and will consider candidates for various education levels, from level 1 to degree level. Those at lower levels will reportedly be trained within Pizza Hut.
While this opportunity may seem novel to some, other institutes in various parts of the world have offered pizza making programs, although this probably is the first time that one is offered in a university, in an academic setting.
There's Domino's Pizza School, which is basically an online pizza-making lite arrangement that schools the user on the rudiments of making the pie. There are no tips on running an empire built on round, flat dough covered with tomato sauce and tasty toppings.
There's also the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners, which offers a program that "adopts an integrated approach, teaching both the theory and the practical skills necessary to join a profession that is considered a popular, cultural and social phenomenon which is typically Italian, in continual growth both in Italy and abroad."
There also are a number of New York pizza schools having programs that last a weekend or more. A simple Google search will yield a number of such results.
What makes Pizza Hut's partnership with a UK academic institution stand out is the fact that it has the appealing sheen of formal education, which also gives the whole learning experience some gravitas that somehow says, "I'm a serious, legitimate pizza maker."
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