August Newsletter: Shanghai Young Bakers is proud to welcome its 10th batch of students
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Right after the 9th batch of students’ graduation ceremony, it was time to think about the 10th batch of Young Bakers’ recruitment. Over the course of 8 years, Shanghai Young Bakers has already trained 212 young adults to become professional bakers and will be training another 32 this year.
At the end of July, Zhu Yunyun, our social educator, Zhang Shuai, our bakery teacher, Jin Huizi, our pastry teacher and myself travelled across Shaanxi, Anhui, and Henan for 10 days to interview potential candidates.
This year, 6 partner NGOs recommended candidates. NGOs’ recommendations are crucial to SYB’s selection process. Indeed, without their understanding of youths’ given situations, we would be unable to recruit those who are likely to most benefit from our program. NGOs serve as a bridge to help SYB select young adults coming from difficult backgrounds, who lack the opportunities of acquiring skills needed to lead independent lives.
Every student we interviewed has a unique story and set of feelings. However, commonalities can be identified among the group. Indeed, growing up in difficult familial and economic environments fosters a lack of confidence, which is exacerbated when students think about their future. Despite this reality, all selected candidates demonstrated determination and hope to join the program.
Some of the students are determined and hopeful as they have never left their homes and don’t know how to find jobs without any qualifications. They are unable to pursue their studies despite their eagerness to learn. Others have worked from one to four years, leaving their homes at a young age with the intention of bringing money back to their households to support their families. They realized after working for long hours in factories that they had no prospect of improving their working conditions in the long run given they would soon be too old to retain their positions. At this point, they hope to learn skills, which will help them change their career path. When we told them that becoming a good baker requires a lot of effort, most of them understood what we meant as they have been working hard already at home in the fields and in factories. They understood that they would have to learn everything from scratch and seemed ready to do so.
We are very excited and proud to welcome the 32 selected young adults – 10 girls and 22 boys – coming from a variety of backgrounds. Let’s support them as they fulfil their goal of becoming bakers!
Marine
Program Director