How Cheryl Terblanche Established Spectrum Chefs Academy
How Cheryl Terblanche Established Spectrum Chefs Academy. Spectrum Chefs Academy is a cooking school for special needs indaviduals that was founded by Cheryl Terblanche. “In 2008 I had been home-schooling Shay (he is on the Autism Spectrum), concentrating mainly on teaching hospitality studies and culinary skills.”
She continued to say, “He then, at the young age of 17, started working in the industry, without having done his official training. Word got around and I received a phone call from a parent of a son with Cerebral Palsy and was asked if I could teach his son to become self-sufficient in the kitchen. I had no experience working with special needs youngsters other than my son, was battling with Multiple Sclerosis, and doing catering as a side-line.”
News spread by word-of-mouth and soon Cheryl had a whole spectrum of students to teach how to cook. She only had one requirement – she did not want to know about her potential student until after she had met them and interacted with them. During this time Shay was doing his Chef’s course and they were teaching cooking skills at Bergvliet School’s Adult Enrichment Programme in the evenings. They eventually stopped that in order for Cheryl to focus solely on teaching her special needs students.
When Shay returned from overseas in 2017, he joined Cheryl in teaching and Spectrum Cooks was born. During this time a need arose to offer an accredited cooking course and as nothing was available in South Africa at the time, they took on the Asdan UK Foodwise Programme. By 2021, after fighting with the Education Department for a recognised culinary curriculum for special needs students, they took the plunge and developed their own curriculum and moved into bigger premises. Spectrum Chefs Academy was established.
Now, together with its Quality Council for Trades & Occupations (QCTO) recognised curriculum, along with the Highfield International Programme, Spectrum Chefs Academy is able to offer students an accreditation and a chance to enter the workplace with pride. In addition to its accredited courses (Chefs and Cooks), the academy has its skills development cooking classes, enabling its students to learn a skill, contribute to the household, and gain confidence in themselves.
