Culinary Skills qualifications and training courses

Last Updated: 20 Jan 2023

The Culinary Skills qualifications can help you become a chef or progress to a more senior chef's role. You'll gain a high standard of cookery skills and have the option to learn other workplace essentials like health and safety in a kitchen.

The Culinary Skills qualifications are for anyone who works or wants to work as a chef in the catering and hospitality sector. It is ideal for learners coming straight from school who wish to seek a career in this industry. It is also ideal for those chefs in industry who would like to continue or refresh their knowledge by undertaking topics within the qualification.

Available to deliver in the following:

England
Wales – please check QiW website for available funding
Scotland
Northern Ireland

Interested in delivering this qualification?

Find out more about how to become an approved City & Guilds centre or fill out our online customer application form.

General Information

What Is Involved In Studying This Course?

You'll cover things like:

Food safety
Health and safety in catering
Healthier foods
Costs and menu planning
Preparing and cooking different foods.

These qualifications are usually assessed by your training centre using assignments, practical tasks, exams and/or online tests.

For these qualifications you will complete practical demonstrations/synoptic exams, assignments and take a multiple choice examination.

Which Level is right for me?

Level 1
You are new to the industry and want to gain a good basic understanding of catering work, enough to succeed in a job or move on to further study.

Level 2
You have some basic skills and experience as a chef, probably from a role where you work under supervision. You want to gain a formal qualification and increase your skills so that you can take on a more senior role.

What Careers Can This Lead To?

The Culinary Skills qualifications can help you find a job as a:

Catering assistant
Chef

After taking the Level 1 qualification you could move on to:

Level 2 (NVQ) Professional Cookery (7132)
Level 2 Diploma in Professional Cookery (7100)
Level 2 Diploma in Culinary Skills (7138)
Level 2 Diploma in Professional Patisserie and Confectionary (7120)

After taking the Level 2 qualification you could move on to:

Level 3 (NVQ) Professional Cookery (7133)
Level 3 Diploma in Advanced Professional Cookery (Kitchen & Larder) (7100)
Level 3 Diploma in Professional Patisserie and Confectionary (7120)

If you want to continue studying after completing the Level 3 qualification you might be interested in management qualifications from the ILM.

What Is Involved With Delivering This Course?

To deliver these qualifications you will need suitably qualified staff to carry out training and assessment.

You will also need suitable facilities to carry out the required training to enable learners to achieve industry standards.

As a minimum, centres wishing to provide this qualification must have access to a well equipped industrial kitchen including:

Cooking facilities to enable full access to the qualification (for example ovens / ranges, grills, griddles and deep fat fryers), Worktop space (stainless steel workstations or tables), Washing facilities (hand washing, food preparation and washing up), Refrigerator space, and small and large equipment.

Centres will need to review the range of equipment requirements against each unit within the qualification. You may need to purchase additional equipment in order to offer the qualification.

To find all the resource requirements for assessment and delivery, download the qualification handbook from the centre documents section.

Anyone can take this qualification, but you must make sure all your learners can access the resources they need to complete it.

Level 1

The Level 1 Culinary Skills qualifications will suit you if you are new to the industry.

For a full list of units available, download the qualification handbook from the centre documents section.

Level 1 Award in Introduction to Culinary Skills (7138-10)

Last Registration Date: 31 Aug 2026

Level 1 Award in Introduction to Culinary Skills

Accreditation No: 601/0989/0 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 9 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 30 - 44 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: Data unavailable The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 31/08/2027 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: £37.20 Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 1 Certificate in Introduction to Culinary Skills (7138-11)

Last Registration Date: 31 Aug 2026

Level 1 Certificate in Introduction to Culinary Skills

Accreditation No: 601/0991/9 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 35 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 200 - 200 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: 350 The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 31/08/2027 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: £66.00 Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 2

The Level 2 Culinary Skills qualifications will suit you if you have some basic skills and experience as a chef, probably from a role where you work under supervision. You want to gain a formal qualification and increase your skills so that you can take on a more senior role.

For a full list of units, download the qualification handbook from the centre documents section.

Level 2 Certificate in Culinary Skills (7138-21)

Last Registration Date: 31 Aug 2026

Level 2 Certificate in Culinary Skills

Accreditation No: 601/0604/9 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 14 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 100 - 100 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: Data unavailable The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 31/08/2028 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: £66.00 Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 2 Diploma in Culinary Skills (7138-22)

Last Registration Date: 31 Aug 2026

Level 2 Diploma in Culinary Skills

Accreditation No: 601/0711/X This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 46 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 301 - 301 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: Data unavailable The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 31/08/2028 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: £101.00 Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Here you can find all documents related to this suite of qualifications.

By clicking on the section headings below, you can access a variety of documents such as the qualification handbooks and assessment materials, Statements of Purpose, and recognition letters from industry and employers.

Some documents may be password protected. Passwords can be retrieved by logging in to Walled Garden and visiting the Administration section of the relevant qualification catalogue page.

Interested in delivering this qualification?

Find out more about how to become an approved City & Guilds centre or fill out our online customer application form.

7138 Level 1

Assessment materials

Centre documents

7138-10-11 L1 Award Certificate Qualification handbook v2-3 pdf 791 KB 27 Feb 2023

Culinary Skills (7138)