October 28, 2023
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What are Functional Skills? From Theory to Practice
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October 29, 2024
I didn’t know what love is before I found out brownies and fell in love with it until the kingdom come! As you are reading this, I guess you have fallen in love with baking like the way I got stuck in the cakes and pastries. Want baking as a career? Stay tuned to know how to become a baker and rock that profession.
Are you thinking I’m talking about the people whose surname is Baker? Certainly not!
Semantically, a baker is a person who makes bread and cakes, especially as a trade. He bakes and sells bread and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place he works is called a bakery.
However, the first evidence of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked them in water, and mixed everything, mashing it into a kind of broth-like paste. Later, when humans mastered fire, the paste was roasted on hot embers, making bread-making even easier. As a baker, one would note that bread baking took off in Ancient Greece around 600 BC, leading to the invention of enclosed ovens. Being a baker has evolved significantly since then, transforming baking into both an art and a science.
"Baking can be done with a few simple ingredients, so it's about simplicity and nostalgia - people are reminded of their childhood."
Paul Hollywood
English celebrity chef
What do Bakers do?
Being a baker, you have to perform a handful of duties every single day. While your primary task will be mixing dough and making mouth-watering bread, a baker’s job also involves various bakery duties, such as measuring ingredients and preparing fillings. In a baker career, it’s essential to master different baker specialties, whether it’s artisan bread or pastries. Additionally, understanding what bakers do goes beyond just baking; it includes maintaining cleanliness in the bakers’ workplace and ensuring that equipment is in good condition. That includes:
- Ordering and purchasing raw materials
- Ensuring the quality of the raw materials
- Conduct routine and unplanned maintenance on tools and equipment
- Weighing and measuring ingredients
- Kneading dough by hand or using a dough mixer
- Forming loaves to the desired shape
- Baking items in the oven (electric, gas or wood-fired)
- Monitoring oven temperature, humidity and baking times
- Removing baked bread from the oven
- Managing retail bread outlets
- Setting up and maintaining bread displays
- Complying with food hygiene and safety requirements
- Keeping work and shop areas clean and tidy
- Monitoring stocks and ordering in new supplies based on production requirements.
Where do Bakers Work?
As a professional baker, you can work in a bakers’ workplace, such as a bakery plant that produces large quantities. Apart from that, there are some other opportunities like hotels, supermarkets, and shops.
Many bakers at work in retail environments have the option to run their own store. So, you can work as an employee and explore where do bakers work, or you can unlock your own bakery business opportunity.
What are the Qualifications of a Baker?
You don’t need any formal qualifications to become a baker. Many bakers learn most of their skills on-the-job over several years. That said, employers will almost always ask that you have at least some basic literacy and especially some math skills, which are part of the education needed to be a baker. A few good GCSEs will always keep you in the front line.
However, if you don’t wish to work your way up from a primary, entry-level position, then you could undertake some specialist vocational training. Understanding the baker education requirements can help you choose the right courses. Several UK colleges offer relevant courses like:
- Higher National Certificate/Diploma in Baking and Food and Drink Processing
- Certificate in General Patisserie and Confectionery (Level 2)
- Diploma in Professional Bakery (Level 2)
Also, you can add in your bag of qualification by taking courses like sourdoughs bread and pastries or homemade dough mastery course.
Is It Hard to Become a Baker?
Frankly saying, baking is not an easy peasy job to be done. That is to say, working as a baker can be challenging and physically demanding. Commonly, you will be working in a hot, dusty environment, making it far from ideal if you suffer from allergies.
Besides, it can be nerve-racking if you have giant orders to meet. If you go freelance, you have to handle all the stresses that come with starting a small business from scratch, including a lack of stable income.
But you love baking, in it? And as long as you know how to bake, life is sure to be sweet! So, I’m sure you’ll beat the stress with the whisk.
Steps to Becoming a Baker
Becoming a baker associates enrolling in a training program at a supermarket, or apprenticing with a craft baker. Let’s get straight down to the steps on how to become a baker:
1. High School Diploma
Having a diploma can help you to become a desirable candidate in the field. But it is not that mandatory. It would be best if you possess a firm grip in maths in high school. Apart from this, you should take home economics, cooking, or other baking-related courses to aid you to get a head start.
Also, you can take a college course like a Level 2 Certificate in Bakery or Level 3 Diploma in Professional Bakery. You may need:
- For a level 2 course, 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or parallel
- For a level 3 course, 5 or 4 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or match
2. Technical or Culinary School
To improve your craft and learn more technique, you can enrol to a technical or culinary school. It will help you to spot your niche as a baker. These programs usually last from 1 to 2 years. They will educate you in nutrition, health, and mathematics, among other related topics.
If you feel like this is the best path for you, look into programs in your area that offer an excellent financial package. Also, If you wish to be a high-end pastry chef, for instance, then you should get coached at the best program you can afford. This kind of work is highly specialised, and extra training will give you the edge you need to get noticed and hired.
3. Baker Apprenticeship
You could also begin by taking a baker intermediate or advanced training. You can be a trainee at a store or supermarket near your community. There you’ll learn more ground cooking skills, like how to bake cookies of different kinds.
Or, you can join at an artisan bakery to learn more complicated skills, like how to bake cakes. This training generally takes 1-3 years, and you may be able to find an apprenticeship for aspiring bakers at a bakery.
Additionally, you can also look into becoming a baker’s assistant if you have the experience and determination to do so.
The entry requirements are:
- Some GCSEs, including English and mathematics, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
4. Specialised in a Specific Field
Although there is no need to make this decision as you begin your training or apprenticeship, it assists to have an idea of the type of baking you’re most interested in. You can choose to be an in-store, plant, or craft baker.
A retail baker commonly works in speciality shops, bakeries, or grocery stores. You’ll produce a smaller volume of baked goods for people to buy or to eat directly in the store. However, if you want a commercial career, you’ll have to work in manufacturing facilities that make baked goods at high speeds. Being a craft baker demands the most skill, and you can also use your way up to become successful in this field by starting at a store or a plant.
5. Consider getting certified
A real baker doesn’t need any certificate to prove their efficiency and skills! But sometimes you may need to get a certification as a showcase of your productivity.
There are different tiers of certification based on your level of experience. For instance, to be a certified journey baker, you don’t require any formal education, but 1 year of work experience is almost compulsory. In contrast, to be an accredited baker, must have work experience is 4 years.
And to designate yourself a certified master baker, you’ll need 8 years of work experience. For this, you also need 30 hours of professional development training and 30 hours of sanitation coursework.
6. Seek a Job
You may be able to start as a trainee or as a bakery assistant. Or, you can apply for a job in a bakery if you have some catering experience. You can apply to any baking or pastry related industry, any grocery or pastry shop, or any dessert corner. Besides, after gaining experience, even you can create your own business! For this, you have to hire, train, and supervise staff and have a smart amount of capital.
Skills Needed to be a Baker
You dream of being one of the best bakers in the globe, don’t ya? To get this crown, you need to adopt the following skills and knowledge:
- A genuine passion for baking
- Knowledge of food production methods
- Nice and firm control over your hands
- To be thorough and pay attention to detail
- Ability to work well with others
- Proficient in math
- Excellent verbal communication skills
- Strength to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- Capability to use your initiative
- Able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
See, I told you, being a baker is not a hard nut to crack!
Career Progression of a Baker
Career development options depend on the degree, experience, and the size of the workplace. You’ll start their careers with an apprenticeship or in a junior position like an assistant baker. The career hierarchy may look like the following pattern:
Related: Is Baking a Good career? 15 Reasons To Be A Professional Baker
- Trainee or Apprentice Baker
- Cake Baker and Decorator
- Bread Baker
- Assistant Baker
- Artisan Baker
- Comis Baker
- Head Baker
Remuneration of Bakers
For your hard work, you must owe a handsome salary. You’ll earn £32,500 per year for your job on average. At an entry-level, each year you may get £21,450. With years of experience, you can be paid up to £35,708/year or even more.
Not that bad, right?
Final Note on How to Become a Baker
In a nutshell, to become a baker at first you’ll need a high school diploma, then you can join in a culinary school and baker training. Next, if you want you can be specialised in a certain area of baking and get certification and accordingly, you will be all set to start your baking journey!
If you can follow your dreams, surely it will make your life worth living.
I believe you have all the information you are looking at how to become a baker. Also, I’ve tried to cover all the relevant topics to help you in choosing your career path. Now that you’ve set up your mind, what are you waiting for? Just make a move and be the king of the baking world.
Good luck and keep whisking!
FAQs
1. How to become a baker with no experience?
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