The oven timer rings. The first batch of bread is ready. The first customers walk through the door.
In the bright, spacious kitchen, young bakers are busy shaping, proofing, and baking. Out front, freshly baked bread fills the shelves, ready for customers to choose.
JoBBaker is officially open!
You’ll find us in Teaching Building C2 at the Zengcheng Campus of Guangdong Light Industry Technician College, in Guangzhou’s Zengcheng District.
For the young people stepping out of JOBB’s classrooms, this is more than a new bakery. It is their first opportunity to take on the responsibilities of running a business.
1. From Shanghai to Guangdong: From Learning a Craft to Running a Small Business
Over the past few years, JOBB has been exploring how nonprofit baking programs can help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds develop practical skills.
But what happens after they learn to bake? How can those skills lead to a job? How can young people come to understand the responsibilities and value of work? And how can students with the ability and ambition to go further explore entrepreneurship and build new possibilities with their own hands?
JOBB Yue Neng Chuang Bakery is our latest effort to answer these questions. With support from “JoBBaker” (粤能创), an employment and entrepreneurship initiative of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, JOBB is extending vocational training into a real business setting, giving young people the opportunity to move from learning a skill to creating value with it.
This is not JOBB’s first attempt to connect classroom learning with real work. At our Jinqiao training center in Shanghai, the JOBB Bread Corner introduces students to product sales, customer service, and other practical responsibilities alongside their baking lessons, gradually narrowing the gap between vocational education and the workplace.
JOBB Bread Corner
While Shanghai’s JOBB Bread Corner explores the transition from nonprofit training to real work, JoBBaker in Guangdong aims to go one step further—from employment through practical skills to running a business of one’s own.
This is both a working bakery and a learning space without traditional desks. Students must do more than bake bread and serve customers. They must handle real orders, costs, inventory, and waste. Alongside maintaining product quality, they must learn to work as a team, manage the business, and respond to unexpected problems.
Previously, they learned recipes, techniques, and operating standards. Now, they are learning judgment, responsibility, and communication—the skills that keep this small shop running.
2. From Students to Entrepreneurs: Putting Their Skills to the Test in the Real World
JoBBaker occupies the ground floor of Teaching Building C2 at the college’s Zengcheng Campus, right beside the dormitories, cafeteria, and classrooms. Students and teachers passing by each day may glance inside with curiosity. What they see is a group of young people who have grown through the JOBB program, turning classroom skills into freshly baked products on the shelves.
This time, though, their work is being judged by customers, rather than teachers.
Huang Zhencheng: From the Classroom to Running a Business
Huang Zhencheng is a graduate of JOBB’s fourth cohort. After completing his training, he interned at a neighborhood bakery in Shanghai, gaining further experience in kitchen production and store operations. Today, he is a core member of the JoBBaker team.
From student to intern to helping run a bakery, he is taking on another new role in his working life.
Zhang Lu: From Learning to an Internship
Zhang Lu, a student in JOBB’s fifth cohort, is 16 years old.
During her time at JOBB, she demonstrated a strong ability to learn and work efficiently. Now, she has joined JoBBaker as an intern, stepping beyond the classroom for the first time to take part in a real bakery’s daily operations.
She feels a little nervous. When the products she makes are no longer classroom assignments but goods displayed on shelves for customers, the question shifts from “Can I make this?” to “Can I make it well, every time?”
Rukeya Atawula: From Receiving Support to Supporting Others
We call her Xiao Ru. A member of JOBB’s third cohort, she traveled from Kashgar to Shanghai to learn baking, then worked in the kitchen of a Shanghai bakery chain before returning to JOBB as a teaching assistant.
Now, she has come to Guangdong to support Huang Zhencheng and Zhang Lu through the early stages of this venture.
From a student receiving support to someone who can share her experience with younger students, Xiao Ru has followed a remarkable path of growth.
3. It Starts with a Loaf: What Is the Value of Craftsmanship in a Digital Age?
A refrigerator running just 2°C warmer than expected can undo all the care that went into a batch of dough.
If the mixer’s bowl capacity, speed, and batch size are out of balance, the gluten may struggle to develop.
Should the pre-fermented dough ferment at 25°C for an hour and a half, or two hours? Has it doubled in volume?
Is the dough 22°C or 25°C when it comes out of the mixer? Should the first fermentation last 50 minutes or 60?
The oven display reads 255°C—but is that the actual temperature inside?
A few degrees or a matter of minutes can change how a loaf turns out.
French baking may look simple, but it is a craft that demands precision in ingredients, equipment, environment, and technique. Every number matters. Every step has a reason.
As automation becomes part of everyday life, technology makes production more efficient. Yet a good product still depends on people: understanding how ingredients behave, observing fermentation, judging flavor and texture, refining details, and continuing to search for answers when results fall short.
Craftsmanship means understanding and respecting technology while continually striving to improve. This is also the professional attitude JOBB hopes to instill in its students.
Our baguettes are made for a thin, crisp crust, a supple, chewy crumb, and the naturally rich aroma of wheat. Our chocolate tarts pair delicate, crumbly pastry with a smooth, house-made chocolate filling, striking just the right balance between sweetness and bitterness. Our apple pastries bring together a golden finish, distinct flaky layers, and the light sweetness of apples with the rich flavor of butter.
At JoBBaker, great taste should be something you can count on, every time.
We hope you’ll come for JOBB’s story—and for our products, too. And we’ll keep exploring, bringing both timeless favorites and fresh creations to our shelves.