In a moving ceremony led by the French Consul in Shanghai, Mr. Emmanuel Lenain, and the director of the Ecole Francaise de Boulangerie & Patisserie d’Aurillac (EFBPA), Mr Christian Vabret, the three SYB trainers were handed the French professional diplomas that they obtained after months of impressive hard work and courage last July 2011 in France.

Zhang Zhenghai, Wang Li, and Xiao Jinjin joined SYB as students in February 2009. The best in their class, they were selected by SYB to study French at the Alliance Francaise in Shanghai. With the support of the French consulate and the French bakery school EFBPA, they left for France in January 2011 to study towards the French CAP diploma for 6 months.

As Mr Christian Vabret told the audience during the ceremony, the three young people immediately impressed their classmates with their determination, their enthusiasm and the ease with which they adapted to French life and engaged with new friends. Against all odds, all three not only successfully passed the exams – which contains general knowledge tests in French – but also came out first of their class – Wang Li and Zhang Zhenghai in bakery, and Xiao Jinjin in pastry.

Under the warm and loud applause of the audience, who had gathered to celebrate the opening of the “Fete du Pain” (Bread Festival) at the Ecole-Restaurant of the Paul Bocuse Institute, the French Consul and the EFBPA school director gave the three young Chinese their CAP diplomas. They were surprised to be handed, in return, two large certificates made of decorated bread, expressing the three youth’s gratefulness for their trust during their program in France.

Since their return to China in August 2011, Zhang Zhenghai, Wang Li and Xiao Jinjin are applying what they learnt in France to teach SYB’s fourth enrollment of students. Thanks to their professionalism and dedication, they are also helping SYB turn into a social entreprise, by offering catering services and public classes to amateurs of authentic French baked goods.