The Sky(City) really is the limit for Kiahn
Kiahn Murray with one of his dishes made at HLC in 2018
After completing two years with HLC, Kiahn Murray has been accepted into the SkyCity Apprenticeship programme in Auckland.
After an intense selection process and competition with other budding chefs from around the country, Kiahn was selected along with nine others to be part of the three year programme. He will be working alongside world renown chefs and will start in early 2019.
Kiahn first enrolled at HLC in June 2017. He had been home-schooled and needed to achieve NCEA. Kiahn had been out of the education system for a while and was gaining work experience in the building industry.
He found his place in the classroom very well. The class had many strong personalities, which challenged Kiahn throughout his time. However, this was a positive experience for him as it helped him become more interactive with the class after never being in a classroom situation before. Kiahn achieved NCEA Level 1 and Level 2 in 2017.
Kiahn expressed an interest in being a chef early on in the course. He quickly put the skills he was gaining in class into real life practice by being selected to work alongside the Level 4 Cookery chefs at our HLC restaurant nights. On these nights we open to the public to dine in and see our students at work. The Level 4 Cookery course became a goal for the following year and he used this goal throughout the Foundation Skills course when planning his future directions and creating a CV. This led to Kiahn finding part time employment at an award winning ice-cream store in Otaki where he is still currently employed.
There are a range of scholarships available to students at HLC who wish to further their studies after they finish their first programme of study. Options include: HLC, Southern Hospitality, UCOL and Horowhenua District Council. Kiahn applied for both HLC and Southern Hospitality Scholarships. He received a total of $5000 to help pay for his Level 4 course fees, uniform and equipment.
After returning to HLC in February 2018 for Level 4 Cookery, Kiahn went from strength to strength. He entered the Wellington Culinary Fair with his own venison dish creation. He competed against other more experienced chefs from around the entire region and came away with a Bronze medal. Because Kiahn has such a story which started in his Level 1 Foundation Skills class, we thought it would be only fitting to use him as one of our many faces for our 2019 marketing campaign. Kiahn features on our billboard and on our programme flyer.
Kiahn’s next step with Sky City is a huge achievement and one that we are proud to share in with him.