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Catering and Hospitality

Level 2 Diploma in Professional Food and Beverage Service

Not everyone wants to be behind the stove, some people want to run the room. This course trains you for the front of house: restaurant service, bar operations, beverage knowledge, customer experience, and everything that makes a great hospitality professional. You'll serve real customers in our Waterfront Restaurant, learn from tutors with genuine industry backgrounds, and build the skills that restaurants, hotels, and events companies are looking for. If you're confident with people and want a career with variety, this is where it starts.

Got a question? Ask us

How you’ll learn

Great hospitality is about more than taking orders. You’ll learn how to create an experience — from the moment a customer walks in to the moment they leave. You’ll develop professional service skills in our Waterfront Restaurant, working with real customers in a real setting. Our tutors have worked across hotels, restaurants, and events, and they’ll teach you the standards the industry actually expects — not just the theory.

You’ll build knowledge across beverages, menu design, food safety, legislation, and customer service — plus practical skills in hot beverage preparation, bar service, and payment handling. This is a course with genuine breadth: it opens doors to restaurant management, events, hotel front-of-house, bar supervision, and more. The hospitality industry is huge, varied, and growing — and the people who understand professional service are always in demand.

Core Knowledge

  • Investigate the Catering and Hospitality Industry
  • Food Safety in Catering
  • Health and Safety in Catering and Hospitality
  • Legislation in Food and Beverage Service
  • Menu Knowledge, Design and Resources

Practical and Professional Skills

  • Applying Workplace Skills
  • Principles of Beverage Product Knowledge
  • Service of Hot Beverages
  • Food and Beverage Service Skills
  • Handling Payments and Maintaining the Payment Point
  • Principles of Customer Service in Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism
Entry and progression

What you need and where it leads

  1. Entry requirements
  2. This course Level 2
  3. Further study
  • 4–5 GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including Maths and English
  • Successful interview with our team
  • Initial assessment in Maths and English
  • A genuine interest in hospitality and customer service

If you need to continue working towards your grade 4 in GCSE Maths or English, support is built into your timetable.

Not sure you meet these? Talk to us and we will help you find the right starting point.

Careers it can lead to

  • Waiters and Waitresses £12.21 an hour
  • With further study or experience Restaurant and Catering Establishment Managers and Proprietors £30,400 a year
  • With further study or experience Catering and Bar Managers £26,000 a year
  • With further study or experience Bar and Catering Supervisors £13.15 an hour

Typical pay is the UK median for each job (Lightcast, October 2026).

Our facilities

Serve Real Customers in a Real Restaurant

You'll train in our Waterfront Restaurant, an AA Rosette-awarded restaurant open to the public. This isn't a simulated environment. The customers are real, the service standards are real, and the experience you build here is exactly what employers are looking for.

  • Waterfront Restaurant

    AA Rosette-awarded, open to the public. You'll serve real customers as part of your training

  • Professional Bar Area

    Learn beverage service, barista skills, and bar operations in a fully equipped training bar

  • Events Spaces

    Experience planning and running hospitality events — from themed dinners to dessert clubs

waterfront_food-10-768x1024
AA Rosette Restaurant
Aleksandra

Aleksandra

Level 3 Professional Patisserie and Confectionery

Student Voice

“

I gained skills, confidence, and insight into professional kitchens. I enjoyed teamwork in the dessert club, and now I plan to start my own bakery after studying at Doncaster College.

For parents and carers

Supporting your child’s journey

Real Career Prospects

These qualifications lead to real jobs. Our courses are built around the skills that employers are actually hiring for, locally and nationally.

See career options

GCSE Support Built In

If your child needs to resit GCSE English or Maths, it's built into the timetable, not bolted on as an extra. They'll get structured support alongside their main course.

About student support

Financial Support Available

Bursaries are available, and free meals are provided for those who qualify. If cost is a concern, there's help, and it's straightforward to apply.

Financial support info

Qualifications That Count

These are nationally recognised qualifications with real academic weight. Your child will develop practical skills and knowledge that employers and universities genuinely value.

See the full unit list

Your next step

Apply now, come and see us first, or ask us anything.

Ready for Front of House?

Applications for September 2027 are open. Apply online in 10 minutes.

Want to visit first?

FE Open Event – 12th January 202712th January 4:30pm to 7:00pm

What happens after you apply

1

You apply

Apply online and you’ll get a confirmation email.

2

You meet your tutor

We’ll invite you to an interview to talk through the course and your plans, and make sure it’s right for you.

3

You get an offer

We’ll email you a conditional or unconditional offer.

4

You get ready to start

Come to a taster session in the summer, then enrol in August, bringing your results.

Read our full guide to applying