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1908-1929

Following amalgamation, the College continued to deliver the range of short courses and certificates offered by the two cookery schools. A greater focus was put on the training of teachers and the individual certificate courses were developed into diplomas.  Additional courses were offered to provide support during WWI but it was not until after the war, when the College moved into the building at Park Drive, that it really managed to develop its syllabus. 

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1910-11 prospectus

The College offered short courses in cookery, laundry work, housewifery, millinery, needlework, dressmaking, hygiene, home nursing and book-keeping, as well as public lectures and demonstrations. 

A new elementary qualification in cookery, laundry work and housewifery for elementary teachers and teaching assistants was introduced in 1908, in conjunction with the Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers.

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Students with Ella Glaister and Dorothy Melvin, c1909

The object of the College courses was to be of practical use for women of all classes, either in the home or as a means of earning a living in domestic service or as teachers, cooks, laundresses or matrons in other institutions.  

Students training as teachers had to wear uniform blouses, aprons and sleeves during their training.

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Dorothy Melvin's notes on vegetarianism, 1908

Dorothy Melvin had studied at the Glasgow School of Cookery and became a cookery teacher at the new College (later becoming Principal).  Her rewritten student notes were used for teaching students and provide an insight into the breadth of the course, from cooking equipment to the principles of vegetarianism.

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1910 prospectus, diploma course

In 1910 a combined diploma covering cookery, laundry work and housewifery, replaced the certificates in these subjects.  This was taught over 2 years and 2 terms and came to be known as the Group I diploma. The Group II diploma covering needlework, millinery and dressmaking was introduced later.

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Soldier cooks, 1916

During WWI the College offered number of special training classes, such as invalid cookery for Red Cross workers and canteen cookery, which was primarily aimed to train cooks for munitions factories.  The College also opened its doors to men, running classes for soldiers to help improve cooking in army camps.

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Training Scottish ex-war workers, 1920

With the end of WWI the Park Drive building was reinstated to the College and additional teaching staff were employed.  The College syllabus expanded and student numbers more than doubled.  A new course of Institutional Housekeeping was introduced to train certificated housekeepers and cooks for careers in hospital and restaurant kitchens. The College also provided 12-15 week Ministry of Labour training courses for ex-war workers in cookery, laundry and housework, training them for domestic service.

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Course for sister tutors and dieticians, 1926-27 prospectus

A course for sister tutors and dieticians was introduced in 1925. It was developed in response to a shortage of nurses and dietitians in the workforce. The course was open to trained nurses to gain the qualification which would enable them to teach nurses in training schools.  It was also open to Group I diploma students who could qualify as hospital, hotel or institutional dietitians. 

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Electrical installation advert, Student Welfare Scheme grand bazaar programme, 1927

The College kept up-to-date with advances in domestic science. When electricity became available it not only provided a cleaner source of energy but offered a range of domestic electric devices which would make kitchens safer and free women from household drudgery.  Staff were quick to embrace this new technology for the College and its courses.

In June 1926, Janet and Mary MacKirdy, lecturers at the College, were granted a leave of absence to travel to the United States and look at labour-saving, electrical household devices. Janet MacKirdy, was reported to be “the first Scottish woman to qualify for the Electrical Association for Women (EAW) Diploma in electrical housecraft”.

1908-1929