All photos courtesy of San Diego Coffee Training Institute.
This San Diego Coffee Training Institute (SDCTI) announced it is officially open and operating at full capacity with a dedicated barista and roasting facilities within its SCA-certified training campus.
When San Diego Coffee shop virtuoso reopened in delayed 2016, the renovations provided the space and equipment to house the soon-to-open SDCTI, a nonprofit specialty coffee educational resource that aims to not only train aspiring coffee professionals but also provide those same skills and stable employment opportunities to newborn people leaving foster care, homeless teens and adults, and those returning from incarceration.
Currently, for every three people who pay dues, the nonprofit coffee school is able to award one full scholarship to someone from the city’s most at-risk and disadvantaged populations.
Barista training courses began in June 2017 with a handful of students at a time using Cafe Virtuoso equipment during off-hours while construction on the dedicated lab was completed. With the lab now complete, the company announced that SDCTI had launched full curricula for both its barista and roasting programs and was ready to welcome a full complement of students.
Cafe Virtuoso trainer and quality assurance manager Savannah Phillips told Daily Coffee News that since the program launched last year, seven scholarship recipients have graduated, and the school currently hopes to accept about six scholarship recipients per month.
“We hope to grow that in the coming months as our program and staff grow,” Phillips said. “We currently need about three fee-paying students for every one fee-paying student. Our goal is to get closer to a 1:2 ratio, so we’re working to make that happen now that we no longer have the cost of building the lab.”
The fees charged to paying students go entirely to cover operating costs for scholarship students. Phillips said one of the organization’s main hopes for the future is to find a way to make field trips part of the experience.
Although some shows will include Cafe Virtuoso Love smoker, all practical training in the smoking program will take place Diedrich equipment, the latter company is a partner in the school. Students can bring their whole grain creations home to share with family and friends, and while it is possible that as the program progresses, they may produce saleable products, this will be for the sole purpose of educationally benefiting the students. The relationship between Cafe Virtuoso and SDCTI is beneficial for other reasons.
“As SDCTI grows, it will need more instructors, some of whom will also come from Cafe Virtuoso, having trained at SDCTI,” Phillips said. “It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that we hope will facilitate both SDCTI and Cafe Virtuoso for years to come.”
Once the lab is up and running, SDCTI will focus on refining and polishing the curriculum. Phillips said, “Our ultimate goal is to achieve high student success rates in the program, which in turn helps us facilitate even more people.”
SDCTI is located at Cafe Virtuoso in Barrio Logan at 1616 National Avenue, San Diego.
Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the deputy editor of Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
