In late summer 2024, Pyramid WorkWise Alliance met with City Colleges of Chicago’s workforce specialists to discuss creating a culinary pre-apprenticeship program for youth and a culinary registered apprenticeship with Navigate Foundation. Navigate Foundation is a nonprofit organization from Georgia that provides quality internship opportunities for youth interested in the culinary/restaurant industry and looking to expand their footprint to Chicago. During program year 2024, Pyramid, City Colleges, and Navigate met many times to create the two programs.

The Pre-Apprenticeship Program is a comprehensive program intended to offer young people (ages 18-24) a mix of classroom and on-the-job experience in the culinary field. Participants will participate in a two-week job readiness program with Navigate Foundation, attend classes at City Colleges of Chicago, Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute, where they will earn their Basic Culinary Certificate, and work for Compass Group across the region at their various locations. The first cohort of the Culinary Pre-Apprenticeship Program began training on August 11, 2025! This direct-feed Program is designed to help recruit customers for the longer-term Registered Apprenticeship Program.

In addition to the Pre-Apprenticeship Program that Pyramid created with Navigate Foundation and City Colleges of Chicago, Pyramid also acts as the intermediary for a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) for culinary apprentices. Pyramid created the RAP Work Process Schedule and all related documents and submitted them to the United States Department of Labor for approval. The first RAP cohort is scheduled to commence in January 2026.