By Patrick Avenell

The team at Domayne Warrawong, around 100 kilometres south of Sydney, has been doing its bit for the wider community, engaging in some corporate social responsibility in partnership with Italian cooking brand Smeg.

In late 2012, electrical franchisee Chris Lozenkovski and his wife Mence hosted students from MTC Work Solutions in Bankstown in a cooking class. Many of these students have English as a second language so this was an opportunity to improve both their communication and cooking skills.

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“The purpose of this cooking demonstration was twofold,” Mence Lozenkovski said. “First, to introduce a household cooking name to students that have not had the exposure and allowing them to experience a real hands-on cooking interaction with authentic ingredients.

“And, secondly, the students experienced direct interaction, with the ability to participate in following instructions, methods and procedures. Apart from observing and following instructions during the cooking demonstration, students had an opportunity to experience the latest innovation of the Smeg cooking range.”

Smeg national marketing manager Jim Kalotheos said the work MTC does is in line with Smeg's company ethos.

“As a family owned company, people are at the centre of everything we do, whether they are our staff, our customers, or the less privileged," he said. "In this particular instance we were in a position to assist a group of people who were new arrivals to Australia.  Along with MTC Work Solutions we were able to assist in the development of  this group of unskilled workers and job seekers, along with MTC Work Solutions, in the form of a hands on cooking class.

"These people may or may not be future brand ambassadors for Smeg, but in this case it wasn't about that, it was about helping in the development of people.”

MTC Work Solutions describes itself as “a not-for-profit community-based organisation committed to assisting people to gain employment, skills training, personal development, work experience and career planning”. Many of the people MTC works with are new to Australia and in need of skills training in order to join the workforce.

“The mutual contribution from both Smeg and MTC enabled students to experience and develop an ability to follow both verbal and written instructions and apply them in everyday life,” Mence said.

MTC students learning cooking skills on Smeg appliances.