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  1. #1
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
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    Who's at fault?

    This isn't a vent and I'm not going to do anything about it but I was curious about what people here think.

    The group that I donate to is getting their kitchen renovated and the woman who works there is slowing down so I'm taking a larger role in food distribution and meal prep. I generally take a couple of classes a year in one thing or another at the local vocational school and the ServSafe certification came up so I took that.

    The instructor was a very experienced and knowledgeable health inspector and had a lot of great information. But he runs his own consulting business and made a solid pitch to the class for hiring him for their organizations and companies. He also handed out his own printed materials and was disparaging about the book distributed by the ServSafe program. He taught everything based on his own materials and said that that was pretty much everything we needed to know.

    We took the exam tonight. Half of the people were just there for the exam because they were re-certifying. The instructor talked for about 90 minutes, mostly relating war stories about various restaurants he had inspected even though it was supposed to be a review. He told everyone that the exam would be mostly common sense. ServSafe does not allow instructors to so much as look at the exam so he didn't know the content but he was very confident.

    The thing about it though was that he was having us cross out certain terms on his stuff and write in new terms and change temperature values. When I went to study I took the practice exams in the book and I didn't do very well. So I read the book. Then I looked at the copyright. 2017. Then I looked at his materials again and there were very clear discrepancies between the two. There was also quite a bit more information in the book. At first I was indignant but then I thought that the students should be reading the book anyway.

    Went to the exam and expected his review to include the changes in terms for the people who were re-certifying. None of that. He just acted like it was all the same stuff.

    I sailed through the exam. Didn't know absolutely everything but it was multiple choice so not a big deal. The thing about it though is that if I hadn't read the book, I would have flat out failed. The rest of the people were still there when I left. Very little page turning was going on.

    My question is, whose fault is it? The instructor for presenting outdated material or the student for not reading the book provided by the people who wrote the exam?
    Last edited by janedoe; 03-30-2018 at 05:09 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog labsnewfy's Avatar
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    in my opinion Both.

    He is the instructor and should be teaching the current information that is his job and what he is getting paid to do. I would also let the health department know what happened so they can get a handle on him and other instructors, to teach the current, correct information for the tests. And yes if you are given a book to read for your class assignment then you need to read it.
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    janedoe (03-30-2018)

  4. #3
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    I agree both. However. Having worked as a chef for over 7 years, I can tell you the education level of many of the workers can be pretty low. I would say there is a good chance that there were some in the class who's reading and comprehension levels were poor at best, which is why they also have these classes. If this instructor is being paid to help these students certify or recertify he should be presenting the proper material.

    Personally I would report this instructor to the appropriate people and let them decide what action, if any, they should take.

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    janedoe (03-30-2018)

  6. #4
    Senior Dog Jollymolly's Avatar
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    Well firstly I am glad you passed. I tend to agree with Barry.

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    janedoe (03-30-2018)

  8. #5
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    If the class was related to getting the certification, he should be teaching from their material. If he is very experienced, disagrees and can provide valid reasons for why to “do” things differently than what is being taught in the book and possibly on the test, I think that would be beneficial to the students as long as he makes it clear the students need to answer the questions based on what the certification exam.

    Mentioning his business is fine for an introduction about himself, but using the class to sell and promote his services, in my opinion, is crossing the line.

    If it were me, I would contact the school to discuss your experience.

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  10. #6
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Have to agree with the others. And, also reporting him to those in charge.

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  12. #7
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
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    Thank you. I won't get the results for a couple of weeks but all of the questions were familiar to me whereas when I took the practice tests, I was guessing right and left.

    The only thing I can think of for the instructor is sending his teaching materials to ServSafe. The vocational school wouldn't know the difference. He's a certified ServSafe instructor so that's all they would care about. It would have to be done anonymously though because he's a local inspector. I looked at the materials again. Forgot to mention the sexual references. In print. He made a few in class too and no one responded. It just fell flat. There's no way the place I volunteer with would put up with that so the marketing ploy failed right there. I wish he had been more serious about the material. Almost everyone in the class was affiliated with a nonprofit of some kind.

 



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