Baking and Pastry Arts Education: What are the Benefits?
Aspiring bakers and cake decorators have never had it easier -- thanks to the World Wide Web, anyone can learn cake decorating, baking, pastry construction, food science, and more for free in the comfort of their own kitchens. However, if you are one of these eager learners and want to raise your skills to a professional level, nothing beats enrolling in onsite, in-person baking and pastry arts classes. The time commitment, travel, and fees might seem unnecessary at first, but an in-person education is essential for people who want to move into the world of commercial pastry preparation and cake decorating.
Education Above and Beyond
Students in diploma and degree baking and pastry arts programs learn everything from the ground up. From why certain flours act the way they do to how a twist of the wrist can change a flourish of frosting, students are exposed to everything they need to know to have a chance at succeeding in the world of pastry.
Technically, you could find all this online. But you'd have to search constantly to ensure you were covering all of the information you needed to know. If you're a beginner, of course, there's really no way to know if you're covering everything, or even if the person who placed the information online knew what they were doing. Imagine spending time on learning pastry arts from a website only to find out that you had learned an incredibly inefficient method.
If you take a class in person as part of a diploma or degree program, then you can rest assured that you're learning the best methods from skilled pastry chefs and decorators. You'll receive guided education that covers all aspects of the field, from actual decorating to business skills if you plan to start your own bakery.
Resume Building
Taking classes from a diploma or degree program also helps you build up your resume for when you start to apply to companies. If you take online courses, you'll have to present the courses in the best possible light (writing that you took several online courses from craft and baking websites will make you look like a hobbyist instead of a professional) and present a skills-based resume, where you try to extract applicable skills from your non-pastry-related jobs.
Take classes from a culinary school, though, and you can create an education-based resume that spotlights what you learned at the school. Potential employers will see that you had the will power and persistence to finish a diploma or degree program, too. That alone can be an important factor during your job search.
Even if you have no professional aspirations, taking these courses will upgrade your skills and let you make stunning cakes and pastries that you could be proud of.
Networking
There's one more big benefit to taking courses through a culinary school, and that's networking. You'll meet professionals who may be able to give you references if you develop a good learning and working relationship with them; you'll also be able to form a network with current and past students. These networks can be essential when you're out looking for work or when you're trying to find other people to work at a bakery that you started.
Does formal baking and pastry arts education sound like the right fit for you? If you're interested in earning a Diploma in Baking and Pastry Arts, consider ECPI University's Culinary Institute of Virginia for your education. With an accelerated course of study and year-round classes, you could graduate in 10 months and be ready for the next chapter in your life. Contact an ECPI University admissions advisor today to discuss your options.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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