Franchise chain Bakers Delight is offering 1000 new apprenticeship opportunities in 2013, despite recent statistics showing the Australian job market to be gloomy. And the apprenticed bakers can forge a path to becoming a franchisee, as Roger Gillespie, co-founder and CEO of Bakers Delight, explains.

“Completing an apprenticeship with Bakers Delight involves more than just going to school or training, it’s a hands-on, nationally recognised qualification where recruits channel their passion in to the art and science of baking.

“It’s a qualification that can offer a career platform, direction and lifestyle flexibility, to a recruit that may be uncertain of their career prospects.

“Many of our qualified apprenctices also have aspirations to become a manager or a franchisee, in fact 30 percent of our franchisees began their career as an apprentice baker.”

Employment rate figures released on 17 January by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a slight increase in unemployment (5.3 to 5.4 percent) from November to December 2012. A survey by the ANZ Banking Group backed up the sombre outlook showing job ads hit a three-year low in December.

“There is no question the job market is tough,” said Gillespie. “As someone with many years in the baking industry and a fourth-generation baker, I speak from experience when I say that for young Australians a baking apprenticeship represents a solid career opportunity.

“We’re keen to offer that opportunity to 1000 new apprentices in 2013, bucking the trend of the broader job market,” he said.

Baking is currently listed on the Federal Government’s National Skills Needs List. Bakers Delight has a 13.3 per cent share (Roy Morgan single source data September 2012) of the Australian bread market.