"Every single student who graduates from OCCI will automatically be a Certified Culinarian," OCCI Executive Director Shawn Hanlin said.

Oregon Coast Culinary Institute at Southwestern Oregon Community College recently was granted a five-year accreditation by the American Culinary Federation.

The five-year accreditation is the highest level available for initial accreditation by the ACF – the premier professional chefs’ organization in North America, focusing its efforts on offering education, apprenticeship and industry certification. With the accreditation, OCCI’s graduates automatically will gain the title of Certified Culinarian upon graduation, along with their associate’s degrees.

The accreditation is based on a variety of factors including quality of curriculum, instruction, student success, administration of the program and student service. As part of Southwestern, OCCI already enjoys institutional accreditation with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities but this accreditation is a feather in the cap of the OCCI Culinary Arts program by showing its value in providing practical skills and training beneficial to future Culinary Arts professionals.

“Every single student who graduates from OCCI will automatically be a Certified Culinarian,” OCCI Executive Director Shawn Hanlin said. “Even though all of our students already test out adequately for that certification, they automatically will be recognized with that credential for completing the program.”