With the Intuit food truck supporting schools’ Culinary CTE programs, students are learning by doing while effectively participating in an internship on wheels. Rather than engaging in classroom activities to mimic the experience they would get in a real career setting, the food truck program allows for students to develop real, hands-on skills that promote career readiness. It gives them the opportunity to learn the ‘real real,’ and to build foundational skills in student agency that will support them during their schooling years and as they begin to enter the workforce. Within the Culinary CTE program, students are developing hard skills, which include, but are not limited to, cleaning, cooking with and maintaining commercial grade stoves, fryers, ovens, and fridges, in addition to students building their technical knife and food handling skills. In learning by doing, students within the program will have opportunities to earn their Food Handling Certification as part of the culinary curriculum, which greatly sets them apart from their peers within other schools that may be applying for the same jobs after graduation.

In addition, students will gain hands-on experience working with clientele and get deep insight into what it takes to run a successful business venture. Doing so helps build students’ skills in financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and allows them to see first hand how a business goes from initial idea to conception. Students will leave high school with real business experience that they can put on their resumes when applying for jobs.