Bradford College has criticised the Government for snubbing the district for one of its landmark Asian and Oriental Centres of Excellence.

John Hayes, the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, has announced the department is starting five centres in Leeds, Westminster, Cheshire, London and Birmingham, set up by People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism, and championed by the Hospitality Guild.

He said the centres were chosen to be put in five existing colleges in those areas because of their high quality of teaching standards and specialist knowledge of Asian and Oriental cuisine and recruits will take part in a six-week pre-employment programme equipping them with hospitality skills and a qualification in the Hospitality Industry.

The chosen colleges will get Government funding to deliver the programme, but Bradford College bosses say they are disappointed to have missed out.

The decision has also been made at a time when Bradford is the reigning Curry Capital of Britain.

College chiefs had organised a meeting with People 1st to discuss the concept in January after the massive success of their own International Food Academy (IFA), but the organisation cancelled at the last minute.

Graham Fleming, head of International Food and Travel at Bradford College, said that the College was annoyed about the decision not to involve Bradford.

“We had organised a meeting with People 1st which they cancelled in January and now I know why,” he said.

“We are already doing what these five academies are doing but I feel like we have been hijacked.

“We should have been involved in this because we created the concept (of centres of excellence) and they (the Government) have just jumped on the bandwagon. We launched our IFA last May with a massive wave of publicity and it has been very successful.”

A spokesman for the Hospitality Guild said that the Asian & Oriental Centres of Excellence was a pilot scheme which it planned to roll out to other colleges.

“We hope that Bradford College would be included as part of this,” the spokesman added.

“These centres of excellence have been long in gestation and were originally discussed with the previous Government as part of the strategy to address the skill needs of the Asian and Oriental restaurant and take away market on the back of the migration changes.

“We are very keen to work with as many colleges as possible to help Asian and Oriental restaurants bridge the skill shortage. The choice of the five colleges to pilot the programme was based on their National Skills Academy for hospitality accreditation and the concentration of Asian and Oriental employers in their vicinity.”