Find out how education and workplace training make a difference
At National Food Institute, we partner with various other organisations to provide training opportunities to students. Make n Bake is an initiative of Gre8 Pty Ltd, which directly employs students in the program. We are training these students in professional baking and food processing techniques to create top-notch professional-looking cookies for sale to schools and businesses for promotional use. They also repurpose food from Foodbank into jams, chutneys, and ready-to-eat meals.
1 – What are some of the benefits of Make n Bake?
Make n Bake is a small food production business located in Geelong and Melbourne’s southeast with a workforce of young people of all abilities. Make n Bake is not only, by all accounts, a lot of fun for the students. It also teaches them valuable life skills and builds confidence in their abilities. Students who had previously been used to caregivers offering a lot of protection to them, learn to have greater independence as they take public transport to their workplace. This example is just one way that Make n Bake has a supportive and positive influence on the SBAT students involved in the program.
2 – How does Make n Bake contribute to its communities?
The Make n Bake programs are most known for creating professional baked items such as biscuits, which can be customised with logos, writing, and other designs for special events. Some favourites include yoyos, shortbread, smartie cookies, chocolate chip, and butterfly cookies. Make n Bake is all about contributing to the communities where the workplaces are located. They are not profit-making enterprises, but their professional environments do teach students the end-to-end processes necessary from baking biscuits to getting them ready for pick-up or delivery.
3 – What is Make n Bake’s commitment to ending food waste?
Make n Bake works with Foodbank Victoria to repurpose high-quality excess food that is sourced from supermarkets and other businesses. Gre8 Pty Ltd also manages a FoodBank warehouse while training SBATs about warehousing and logistics. When there are large quantities of a certain foodstuff, SBATs are shown how to use up food in a sustainable manner by making jams and pickling certain items, and creating other ready-to-eat meals.
For more on food sustainability, read our article “What is sustainability and what are we doing about it?”
4 – What training does Make n Bake offer participants?
Make n Bake partners with us at National Food Institute, and we provide training as students complete a Certificate of Food Processing which can go toward their VCAL accreditations.
5 – What do students get out of Make n Bake?
Scarlett, a participant of Make n Bake states that “I enjoy learning a lot from the support, the staff members at Make n Bake… they teach you so many skills you can definitely use in a future career and they show you how a business could work for example say if you don’t know how to run a business Ian [Make n Bake Head of Production] will teach you for example.”
6 – Where are the Make n Bake locations?
Geelong, Scoresby, and Dandenong South.
7 – What is the ultimate aim of Make n Bake?
Make n Bake’s vision is to provide students of all abilities the opportunity to gain real-world work experience. Education and mentoring underpin the core values of Make n Bake, as these programs help young people to find their feet to explore possible careers as they gain confidence and independence through participation in this program. The bakery goods made by Make n Bake are sold at close to cost price to schools and other organisations that can use the biscuits in fundraising drives or in special promotional events.
8 – How can you get involved?
The easiest way to find out more about Make n Bake is to visit the website at https://www.makenbake.com.au/.