FAQs
Why have an academy?
Like any other job, when a barista position opens up, the cafe has two weeks to fill the open position. It’s in the best interest of the cafe to hire someone who has experience as a barista so that they are able to get back to normal staffing as quickly as possible. This doesn’t give much opportunity for people who have little to no experience, or would need a considerable amount of training to start on the floor to be considered for these positions.
Our hope is that Sweet Renaissance Coffee Academy will disrupt this system by equipping people of varying cultural backgrounds with barista training, making them some of the most desirable candidates in the Twin Cities because of their coffee knowledge and skills. In this way, we believe we have the opportunity to decrease the monocultural expression of specialty coffee and create long term and sustainable interest in coffee that could lead graduates to consider more positions in the coffee industry after being equipped with barista training.
When will I hear back from Sweet Ren?
Someone from Sweet Ren will be in contact with you as soon as possible, but no later than two weeks after receiving your application.
How much does the residency pay?
The residency is a stipend based program that provides participants with two $275 stipends.
How flexible is the residency?
The program is designed to be flexible to accommodate participants’ lives and other commitments. We don’t expect that Sweet Renaissance will be the only commitment participants have while they are going through training. Four hours of the program is dedicated to group activities that will be scheduled around all participants’ schedules. The remaining 26 hours will be scheduled individually between participants and the program director to accommodate the needs of each participant. To say it briefly, the program is as flexible as possible.