Charles MacPherson Academy for Butlers and Household Managers, Toronto:
The Charles MacPherson Academy for Butlers and Household Managers, located in Toronto, Canada, is a registered private career college under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005 and is the only butler and household management school of its kind in North America. Our 8-week Butlers and Household Managers Program teaches individuals who seek to enter the world of service either in a private household or as a hotel butler the critical skills that they will require for their vocation. The school is owned and operated by Charles MacPherson Associates Inc., a firm that has been providing discerning solutions to the luxury residential and hospitality markets since 1996. The curricular mandate of the school’s program is to turn out skilled professionals who meet the service demands of the 21st Century.
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The 8-week Butlers and Household Managers Program includes the following classes:
Household Management - 101 (2 days):
This class delves into the business aspects of household management beginning with abbreviations of the industry, managing household inventories, procedures, manuals, petty cash, and general best practices for a successful over-all household management structure.
Clothing and Valet Care - 101 (2 days):
Over a two day period this course will include fashion, colours, understanding designers, how men’s clothes are made, how women’s clothes are made, understanding ready to wear, made to measure and couture, learning how to correctly build a gentleman’s closet and a woman’s closet. This course then continues with suitcase packing, the various standards of staff uniforms.
Butler Skills - 101 (1 day):
A professional butler teaches butler traits, code of ethics and then traditional items such as ironing a newspaper, answering the door, making coffee, making tea, dealing with different kinds of coffee such as espresso, cappuccino, latté etc. and finally setting the perfect fireplace.
Etiquette & Protocol - 101 (4 days):
The topics included in this intensive four day course include the history of Etiquette & Protocol, then continues with students learning how to do everything from proper introductions, the order of precedence, forms of address to include political, social and religious, social forms of correspondence, invitations, table manners and menu cards.
Event Planning - 101 (1 day):
This class deals with how one works with a hotel caterer vs. off-premise caterers. Understanding the difference between corporate and social events, how to hire a caterer, what is event planning and why do you need an event planner? Additionally the class will explain liaising with suppliers such as rental, tent, staffing and entertainment companies.
Table Setting and Service - 101 (3 days):
A hands-on class includes learning different utensils, china,glassware for service and dining. We proceed on to table setting table space calculation and the different methods of table setting from around the world, as well as understanding the types of table service, napkin folding and the order of service chart. This course is at least 50% hands on.
Cigars and Coffee - 101 (1 day):
The first half of this class concentrates on teaching how to correctly purchase, serve and store cigars. The second half is focused on the perfect cup of coffee, which includes a review of coffee bean varieties as well as roasting, grinding and brewing techniques.
Housekeeping - 101 (2 days):
One of the most important classes begins with a lecture on understanding the importance of light, temperature and dust, how it affects the household and furnishings. Additionally the class covers dealing with spills, safe cleaning techniques, tools, reviewing different surfaces, furniture pieces and how to correctly clean a room and bed making including turn down service.
Security & Driving – 101 (1 day):
Another hands on class where executive driving skills are practiced as well as car maintenance. Additionally, the class will cover responding to different types of household emergencies, as well as understanding household security systems, how they work and how to correctly communicate with a security company and assess if they are doing a good job for your household.
Butler Skills – 201 (1 day):
This class goes to the next level of service including tray service, and how butlers manage household and difficult situations within the household and dealing with employer demands.
Housekeeping - 201 (3 days):
Hands on classes learning to correctly clean bathrooms, bedrooms, how to appoint guest rooms, guest bathrooms and then all of the different methods of suitcase packing and unpacking from clothing, make-up, shoes and dealing with dirty items and finally long term clothing storage.
Gardening – 101 (2 days):
Learning to liaise successfully with gardeners and gardening companies as well as tips for flower arranging and household plant maintenance.
Laundry - 101 (3 days):
Understanding the laundry symbols chart, how to correctly use a washer and dryer, preparing clothes for the wash, dealing with stains, ironing, folding of laundry and linens, using a mangle machine correctly, steaming ball gowns, mending buttons dealing with dry cleaning and dying
dark clothes.
Private Aircraft Management - 101 (2 days):
The objective of this class is to teach the fundamentals of private aircraft safety and how to work effectively either with private charter or in-house flight crews. They will also be instructed on the tricks of the trade for effective food and beverage service using various travel scenarios.
Cooking - 101 (4 days):
Another hands on class to learn everything from basic breakfast cooking skills, grilling meats and fish, simple muffin and cake baking and how to prepare the food for a high tea. This course ends with an afternoon carving class where students have to practice carving different meats and fish.
Wine - 101 (1 day):
To include a brief history of wine, understanding how wine, champagne and spirits are made, how to correctly open and pour different beverages as well as wine / food pairing and wine cellar management.
Mixology and Champagne - 101 (1 day):
Every student who successfully graduates will have the ability to make anything from the perfect Martini to a Rob Roy. This is a hands on class.
First Aid (2 days):
This class includes basic emergency skills for household burns, cuts, heart attacks and dealing with strokes including CPR.
Family Office - 201 (1 day):
A leading Family Office expert explains what a family office is, how it works, what is fractional ownership and how to understand the terms for future use.
Mechanicals - 101 (1 day):
An expert from the service industry will assist students to understand the complexities of a modern household’s operating systems and the need for engaging the right professionals to ensure that the systems run properly.
Household Management – 201 (2 days):
This advanced level covers household management issues at the highest level. Attention will be paid to managing large-scale estates and families with multiple properties, large numbers of staff and guests and family members with high profiles. Common problems and issues one typically encounters will be addressed.
Human Resources – 201 (1 day):
This class reviews staff plans, job descriptions, recruiting process, employment and termination procedures, live-in vs. live out protocols, and employment laws and regulations.
Hotel Butler Department – 201 / Property Management Butler Departments – 201 (1 day):
What are Hotel Butlers, how do they work and how do they differ from household butlers? What does one need to know in order to successfully work with or manage one?
