Ground for coffee culture

The coffee sector has a buzz about it these days as people who were once overlooked for employment are given an opportunity to make it in a career that's full of beans.

The initiative was launched at the Shanghai Coffee Culture Week which also saw companies set up pop-up cafes, hold tasting sessions and showcase how adept robots are at making coffee.

This year's event, which took place from Aug 4 to 18, witnessed the inauguration of the Chaofan Barista Training Base. It will provide candidates with visual or hearing challenges a venue to become professional baristas.

Located within the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, the training base is run by Hinichijou coffee shop, which opened the city's first cafe that is solely run by visually impaired baristas in July, according to the coffee chain's co-founder Wang Tian. All lessons are for free. The reason for setting up the base was because there were many people with physical challenges who wanted to become baristas, but there were not enough places.

"The new shop will only be able to train one barista a month," says Wang, who is also head of the training base. "We thought that was too slow. The training base, on the other hand, can train more than 20 baristas in a month."

He says the program will include practical and theoretical lessons. For starters, the trainees will learn how to use fully automatic coffee machines before they learn how to use semi-automatic ones. More than 30 people have already signed up for lessons, which will be conducted by both baristas, as well as those with physical challenges.

Chen Yingying, who was crowned the champion for the coffee brewing category at the 2019 National Professional Competition for People with Disabilities, is among the trainers. A core employee of Hinichijou, Chen lost her hearing due to an illness as a child. She now uses sign language to teach other hearing-impaired people.

The manager of Hinichijou's new shop Yin Tianbao and his younger brother, Yin Tianyou, will also be roped into helping coach visually impaired trainees at the base.

"I hope that we can communicate and share more of what we have learned about coffee with other visually impaired friends so that they can also be interested in this," says Yin Tianyou.

To ensure that training is as realistic as possible, the environment of Hinichijou cafes has been re-created at the base. Trainees are not obliged to work for the brand after they complete the course.

"I hope they can come to work at Hinichijou after the training, but even if they don't, the training would've given them the necessary skills to work in other cafes," says Wang.

Although currently the base provides training for visually or hearing impaired individuals, more courses will be introduced in the future for those with other physical challenges, he adds.

According to this year's white paper on China's coffee industry, which was released by food delivery platform Eleme on Aug 4, China's coffee industry was valued at 381.7 billion yuan ($56.3 billion) last year, up 27.2 percent year-on-year. The report also estimated that the market value will exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2025. This rapid development of China's coffee industry led to the setting up of 25,900 new coffee-related enterprises in the country last year, a year-on-year increase of 12.5 percent.

With so many local brands emerging and expanding across China, there is now an urgent need to address the shortage of talent in this field, says Xia Yuan, deputy director of the coffee department at the Shanghai Technician Association.

Apart from Hinichijou coffee chain, other companies have entered the fray to address the personnel issue. Among them is Lili Time cafe, the only authorized social enterprise of its kind in Shanghai. More than half of its staff members are hearing-impaired.

Zhang Lili, the founder of Lili Time, says she decided to provide training after she was moved by an incident in which a customer wrote her a note asking if he could learn how to make coffee as it was difficult for him to learn through watching videos. The cafe, however, is aiming to train more than just baristas.

"I also want to help train hearing-impaired florists and manicurists, and help those with autism find good jobs," says Zhang, who runs two stores in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation has also been taking steps to find more employment opportunities for those with physical challenges.

Guo Yongjun, deputy director of the federation, says the organization has been looking to leverage livestreaming platforms to promote employment, training and cultural and sports activities for people with physical challenges.

According to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), for the career development of people in Shanghai, the Party, governmental departments and organizations, as well as State-owned enterprises, should play a leading role in promoting equal employment.