About SYB

 

students at the bund

Shanghai Young Bakers (SYB) is a program providing free training in French bakery to marginalized Chinese youth aged 17 to 23, enabling them to find qualified jobs and lead independent lives after graduation. SYB empowers disadvantaged young adults who had to drop out of school because of their family situation (parents’ death, sickness, disability or imprisonment) and are excluded from stable employment.
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and donors, SYB students follow a one-year training where they learn valuable skills such as French bakery and pastry, Chinese bakery, life skills and English, combined with practical internships at 5-star hotels. Due to the high demand of qualified bakers on the Chinese market, 30 students each year start a new life as bakers or pastry chefs and are able to support themselves and their families.
The program was founded in 2008. In 2011, we created a social enterprise that offers a wide range of services to support the program, such as public baking classes, consulting and training services for bakery professionals. All proceeds go to the SYB  program.

Give an orphan some bread, you feed him for one day; teach him how to bake, you feed him for a lifetime!

By giving disadvantaged youth the opportunity to learn a valuable skill, we empower them to lead independent lives and help others in return.

Our vision

Empowered Chinese youth who overcome exclusion and poverty by having access to high-quality training leading to viable and fulfilling employment opportunities

Our mission

Shanghai Young Bakers aims to teach bakery and social skills to marginalized Chinese youth aged 17 to 23, thus enabling them to find qualified jobs and lead independent lives after graduation.

Our values

To achieve that mission we are guided by the following values, that we pass on to the Young Bakers and hope to instill in the community:

  • Solidarity
  • Responsibility
  • Consideration
  • Empowerment
 
We believe that by sharing skills and knowledge, we can empower others to gain courage and take independent decisions. We take responsibility for ourselves, by understanding the impact of our actions and our ability to change our attitude and the course of things. We believe that by recognizing and supporting each other’s efforts, we can build a spirit of solidarity which enables our team to be collectively stronger than what we could each be individually.
We hope that this way, whether it be the SYB students, teachers, management team, our partners, or society at large, we can each be empowered not only to lead independent lives but also to help each other, take responsibility for ourselves and show consideration for others’ efforts.