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Coffee academy that helps marginalised women, youth wins President’s Challenge

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SINGAPORE — Fifteen years ago, Ms Josephine Teo had a career as an interior designer before she quit to focus on her family. However, after having been out of work for so many years, she was “apprehensive and unsure” about finding a job again at age 48.

“I went into depression and my family went through a hard time … but as a single mother I needed to start work again to support my children,” said Ms Teo.

Today, the mother of two is undergoing an internship at the Bettr Barista Coffee Academy and will graduate to become a certified barista.

“I decided to give it a go because I was attracted to Bettr Barista Coffee Academy. (It) provided me with more than just the skills.

“It gave me emotional support through training with the psychologist, which was something I needed,” said Ms Teo.

The academy is a social enterprise founded by 37-year-old entrepreneur Ms Pamela Chng, who left her boutique web consultancy of eight years to set it up.

It married Ms Chng’s love of coffee and her belief that businesses can be profitable and beneficial to society.

The academy’s 12-week programme helps marginalised women and youth-at-risk become more employable by not only training them to become certified baristas, but also by providing counselling as well as training to help them build confidence and re-enter the labour force.

It is also the only organisation in South-east Asia that offers international coffee certification programmes from America and Europe.

Ms Chng’s efforts were recognised last night when Bettr Barista was named the Social Enterprise Start-Up of the Year at this year’s President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award.

Bliss Restaurant & Catering and SATA CommHealth were given the Social Enterprise of the Year awards for their outstanding contributions to the community.

The winners were given cash prizes of up to S$15,000 and will receive corporate advisory support from leading organisations such as DBS Bank and Keppel Group.

When Ms Chng left her consultancy business, she knew she wanted to do something to empower and help those in need by giving them skills to be “economically independent”.

In 2011, she noticed a lack of skilled baristas in an industry where the specialty coffee sector was growing.

“This meant that the students we trained would be more employable and would be in demand,” she said.

With seed money from the Comcare Enterprise Fund, a start-up grant given by the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the two-year-old enterprise has since helped about 22 women and youths.

Eighteen of them have found jobs in food and beverage, hotel and retail establishments after graduating.

“We see coffee as a stepping stone for them. As long as they get on and stay on the path of productive endeavour, earning enough to get them started with turning their lives around, we consider it a successful first step,” said Ms Chng.

However, running a social enterprise requires her to work “doubly hard” because there is always a “cost when creating change”.

In addition to funding concerns, Ms Chng has to deal with problems such as lower productivity levels among her staff because of the challenging, sometimes dysfunctional, issues they face.

“We just have to give them more chances to get better,” she said.

Ms Chng is looking to expand the academy into a larger facility by the first quarter of next year.

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