Breakfast isn’t the only new wave that Taco Bell is trying its hand at!
The fast-food chain has announced that it will open a business school to help its employees have access to the resources and skills that are required to become franchise owners.
According to Entrepreneur, Taco Bell will partner with the University of Louisville to launch the Taco Bell Business School designed to teach employees that are working in higher-level positions the skills that are needed to own and operate a franchise of the Taco Bell chain.
“It’s going to be seasoned general managers that are probably running fairly decent-sized restaurants that are qualified to be on this path,” said Taco Bell CEO Mark King.
More Opportunities
The first-of-its-kind business school has a simple concept. It aims to take its existing Taco Bell employees working in higher-level restaurant positions and teach them the logistics of what it takes to own and operate a Taco Bell restaurant.
“I’m excited that we can go to people that work for us and say to them [that] we can provide further education that can help you, whether you want to just be more equipped to do your job today, whether you want to learn more, if you want to understand more about franchising and the relationship with between franchisee and franchisor,” King told Entrepreneur. “I think very few [Taco Bell employees] actually go on to be franchise owners, especially in today’s world.”
He further explains how difficult it is to start a franchise, and how the school will help.
“[Franchises] are very expensive to start and to fund and to have all the resources. So it’s very, very difficult as a young aspiring person to to get into it. It wasn’t 50 years ago, but today it’s really difficult. So creating a path or an opportunity for people is pretty exciting. I think this is going to be very rare today in today’s world, to have someone that maybe started out right after high school stayed with us, got promoted, now is running a restaurant and say, ‘Hey, some point I might be able to own one.’ That’s a that’s a pretty exciting opportunity.”
The Program
The Taco Bell Business School program is currently set up as a six-week “bootcamp” and will offer courses centered around the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship.
Courses include topics that range from financials to marketing to HR and more. It plans to feature seasoned Taco Bell franchisees sharing their personal experiences as food chain owners with students.
All Taco Bell employees are eligible for the program and can apply internally to receive scholarships to complete the program.
