Graduating from Centennial’s Baking and Pastry Arts Management program in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kamalpreet Kaur wasn’t sure what her future would look like. Faced with a struggling economy and limited job prospects, she worried – like millions of students around the world – that COVID-19 would put her dreams on hold.
But her worries were short-lived. In August, shortly after graduating from her two-year program, Centennial partner COBS Bread reached out to Kamalpreet offering an internship at their Applewood Plaza location in Mississauga. She’s since been hired on full-time.
“At a time when so many people are losing their jobs, COBS hired me and gave me a chance to learn and grow,” says Kamalpreet. “And it’s been amazing.”
COBS’ work placement program with Centennial is a key component of the company’s growing partnership with the College, which also includes a $100,000 donation over the next decade to the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts and a scholarship for students of the Baking and Pastry Arts Management Program. The COBS Bread Baking Lab on the ground level of the Residence and Culinary Arts Centre at the Progress Campus was named in celebration of the partnership, which has a goal to support the development of Canada’s future bakers.
“What COBS and Centennial students can offer one another is so unique,” says Karen Frost-Spokes, Regional Director of COBS Bread. “We view baking as an art, and we bake all of our bread from scratch every day. We’re teaching students those skills and they’re bringing their incredible passion for learning.”
Kamalpreet says the hands-on training she’s received at COBS has deepened the knowledge she gained through her formal education – a distinguishing feature of a Centennial education, which emphasizes real-world learning through partnerships like the one it shares with COBS. “As soon as I started here, they began teaching me to make breads from scratch,” she says. “I would make mistakes, but they’d help me through and support me.”
Beyond developing her baking skills, Kamalpreet also credits COBS with supporting her personal growth. “I used to be very shy and avoided talking to people,” she says. “COBS has encouraged me to communicate better and work as part of a team. Now I feel much more confident and even work with customers at the front counter.”
Tony Iantorno, franchisee of COBS’ Applewood Plaza location, says that Kamalpreet’s openness to learning is a common characteristic of the Centennial students he’s worked with. “There’s just such an appetite for learning,” he says. “And they take such initiative. You give them a task, they’ll absorb it, master it and be ready for the next one.”
Kamalpreet looks forward to continuing to grow as part of the COBS team, which now has 130 locations across Canada after first opening in Vancouver in 2003. Not only is the company teaching her the art of baking, she also admires its commitment to giving back: every evening, COBS locations nationwide donate any leftover bread and pastries to those in need through partnerships with local charities.
“I love that what I make in the morning is given at night to people who need it,” she says. “It’s incredibly fulfilling.”
To learn more about how you can make a gift and support Centennial students, please contact giving@centennialcollege.ca.
UPDATE: The Centennial College and COBS Bread partnership ended in 2024