You dont have to go to college to learn your way around a kitchen.


Nikki Sutton knew that. Since she always had wanted to be a chef and already was a pretty good cook, she didnt figure to go on in school after she completed high school. Shed just get a job.


Now, entering her senior year at Ferris High School, however, Sutton has had a change of heart. She hasnt committed fully yet, but after graduation, she wants to attend Seattle Art Institute and major in culinary arts.


What changed? A year ago, Sutton entered the ProStart culinary-arts program at Ferris, and it has inspired her to consider further education.


I thought Id just kind of work my way up and learn on the job, but my classes have made me want to learn more, says Sutton, who works part time as a waitress at the Rockwood South retirement centers dining hall. I love learning about it.


ProStart is a national program in which schools and restaurants work together to train high school students in culinary arts and food service. Spokane School District No. 81 operates the 2-year-old ProStart program here in conjunction with the Spokane Restaurant & Hospitality Association.


Sutton is one of about 200 Spokane high school students enrolled in the ProStart program, says Carole Lionberger, the school districts coordinator for professional and technical education. The programs enrollment is at capacity at all five of the districts high schools and at the Spokane Area Professional-Technical Skills Center. No students have been turned away from ProStart yet, however.


Of those involved in ProStart here, roughly 40 will move on to further training for careers in food service, culinary arts, and restaurant management, Lionberger says.


Theres real potential for some good-paying jobs in the restaurant industry, and these kids get a step ahead of other people, she says.


The ProStart program requires that students take a culinary-arts class at their high school or skills center, and also work part time at a Spokane-area restaurant under the supervision of a mentor.


About 50 Spokane-area restaurants participate in the program. They range from sit-down establishments, such as Luigis Italian Restaurant and Sawtooth Grill, to fast-food eateries, and to specialty-beverage shops, such as espresso stands and Orange Julius.


When working with a mentor at a part-time job, a student earns one high school credit per semester. His or her high school instructor meets with the mentor at the restaurantusually a chef or a managera couple of times a semester to make sure the student is learning a variety of tasks and not getting stuck just washing dishes, Lionberger says.


Andy Swanson, owner of the 17-year-old Metro Caf in downtown Spokane, says restaurants get involved in the program as a way to advocate careers in the food-service industry and to develop talent for the industry. He says its becoming harder for eateries to find good help.


Its a constantly expanding number of people who are eating out, so its harder to find motivated long-termers instead of the in-and-out types, says Swanson, who also is president of the Washington State Restaurant Associations Spokane chapter.


Lionberger says that if a student takes a culinary-arts class for two years and works at a restaurant with a mentor for at least 405 hours each year, he or she receives a ProStart certificate.


Such a certificate carries weight in the restaurant business, Lionberger says. Also, culinary-arts programs at many colleges nationwide give work-experience credits or credit transfers to students who have earned such certificates. In some cases, the certification makes students eligible for scholarships.


Critics of the program have said that the schools should be helping students attain goals loftier than careers in food service, Lionberger says. She points out that chefs, restaurant managers, and owners often make good money and that students with such training have opportunities to move past low-paying positions.


The best selling point is that most of these kids werent bound to go to college, honestly, she says. Now, some of them are on that track.


Kathy Merritt, a culinary-arts instructor at North Central High School, says two of her former students are good examples of that. Both boys worked at entry-level food-service jobsone at a Papa Murphys Take & Bake Pizza shop and one at an Outback Steakhousebefore entering the ProStart program. After enrolling at the beginning of their junior years, they began working part time at the WestCoast Grand Hotel, learning a variety of kitchen skills with a chef as their mentor.


After earning the ProStart certificate and graduating from high school, each received a $2,000 scholarship to study culinary arts at Spokane Community College, and both are starting school this fall.


These are kids who wouldnt have had the money to go to college, Merritt says. Now, we have a pathway for them, and they have a bright future.


Sutton and three of her Ferris classmates also were offered scholarships by other schools after placing in a state high school culinary-arts competition, called the Culinary Cup, last spring. The Ferris team took first place in a knife-skills competition, during which they had to cut foods in select styles, and took second in a cooking competition in which they had to prepare a four-course meal in under an hour.


Sutton says she never has been into sports or any other sort of competition, so it was a new experience for her.


For the first minute, I was nervous and didnt know what I was doing, she says. Once we got started, we were relaxed and joking around and knew just what to do.