Guvon Academy

Guvon Academy is a private culinary and hospitality training provider in Johannesburg that forms part of the Guvon Hotels and Spas group. It is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training, where it holds examination centre number 0899992874, and it is accredited by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations as a skills development provider for culinary qualifications, as a trade test centre and for NATED delivery, under three separate QCTO accreditation numbers. Because it sits inside a hotel group, the academy leans heavily on workplace learning: every one of its programmes pairs classroom theory with a structured period of work experience in a professional kitchen.

Teaching is campus based and practical, at a single site at 1 Bosbok Road in Randpark Ridge, Randburg, in Gauteng. The academy does not advertise distance or online study.

The offering is concentrated on professional cookery rather than spread across faculties. The Occupational Certificate: Chef is an NQF Level 5 qualification, SAQA ID 101967, that runs for three years, split evenly between eighteen months of theory and eighteen months of workplace experience. The Occupational Certificate: Cook is an NQF Level 4 qualification, SAQA ID 102296, that takes one year, again half theory and half workplace experience. Alongside these sit two shorter routes: a fourteen-month Patisserie, Baking and Confectionery programme leading to a short learning programme certificate together with a Highfield award, and an Assistant Chef skills programme at NQF Level 2 that runs for three months full time or six months part time. Students on the chef, cook and patisserie programmes may also take optional international awards from the United Kingdom awarding organisation Highfield. The website says further hospitality programmes are being prepared but are not yet open for enrolment.

Entry requirements are modest. The chef and cook programmes ask for a National Senior Certificate, an NCV or an equivalent, and the academy will also consider applicants who have completed Grade 11; the patisserie programme asks for a National Senior Certificate or NCV; the assistant chef programme asks only for Grade 9. Fees are paid per year. Applications are made through an online form on the academy's website, and its news page mentions a bursary recipient, though no bursary scheme is described on the site.