You can barely see her over the top of the computer screen at the cashier counter. But there is no denying how seriously this nine-year-old takes her task. With intense concentration, she punches in the orders and their respective prices, tallying up the purchases.

This is Brigette and she is part of Bakery Brera’s student internship programme.

Thrina teaching Bridgette how to work the cash register.

“She was the one who wanted to be an intern. She saw our poster outside the bakery,” Bakery Brera’s founder, Thrina Low, told Salt&Light with a smile.

Come by the community bakery this season for their Christmas bakes – Christmas wreath studded with fruits, stollen rich and dense, panettone rising high and proud – and you will see little helpers all around.

A child folding cake boxes. One tying pretty bows on packets of gingerbread men. Another wiping down the used trays and tongs till they are clean of crumbs and gleaming.

The internship is open to those preferably aged 12 to 16. Up to three children can be rostered at each four-hour shift for an early exposure to work experience. At times, as many as 50 apply, drawn by the callout put up on social media or posters. Few are ever turned away.

There are plenty of tasks in the bakery that seem simple but are necessary, such as the packaging of baked goods.

It takes trust on both sides to make the internship work, says Thrina. She has to trust the students with the work and the parents have to trust that she nurtures their children.

Said Thrina: “We invest time and effort to guide, coach, mentor and impart values to them. They get to explore their interests in baking and get early exposure to what it means to work and deal with other adults.

“It’s actually more work for us to do this but we want to invest in the next generation.”

From the ground up

Bakery Brera had always set out to be more than a neighbourhood bakery that offers artisanal bread and French bakes. From the start, Thrina wanted it to be a hub where the community spirit is strong. Over the years, that is what the bakery has become, thanks in no small part to her genuine warmth and hospitality.

In the seven years since the bakery rolled out its first viennoiserie, customers have become friends. So it came as no surprise when, about four years ago, one of her customers asked Thrina if she could send her 10-year-old son to be an intern at the bakery.

“A lot of our customers live nearby. They are our neighbours. They like the smell of the bread, have experience baking simple cookies and just want their child to soak up the environment of the bakery.

“Our business is quite domestic by nature. It’s easier to include children. So I said, ‘Why not?’”

That first internship was less about a programme and more about a few hours spent with Aunty Thrina sweeping the shop, cleaning trays and tongs, packing baked goods, putting toppings on the bakes and working the cash register.

Since then, the programme has developed and there have been more than 20 student interns.

The student interns get to experience first-hand many aspects of running a bakery business.

Asked if any intern stood out, Thrina shared about a neurodivergent teen who was among the earlier batches of interns. The boy had been studying abroad and was home for the holidays when his parents approached Thrina. He interned with her over two years.

“He could serve customers because he spoke so clearly. He followed instructions so precisely. To me, he was a perfect candidate.”

Now in his early 20s, he visits Thrina whenever he returns to Singapore.

“He calls me his first boss although technically I wasn’t his employer!

“Till today, there are still customers who remember him. The customers are friends, and friends of friends. It’s a relationship you forge and they have become family.”

It takes a village

The internship is indeed a community effort. While Thrina is the one who accepts and schedules the interns as well as briefs them on their first day, she encourages her staff of about 30 to share her vision. It is important to her.

The children and teens are made welcome in the kitchen.

The Bakery Brera team is solidly behind the internship programme.

“I prep my team and make sure they subscribe to this. 

“They must have love for the kids and agree that we are investing in the younger generation.”

The programme is for the children but their families are involved as well.

Thrina takes pains to explain the duties and rules to the parents and help them understand the goals.

“It takes a lot of trust and relationship between us, whether the children are here for one day, one week, one month or years. They are not commodity or cheap labour. It is important for us to open up our bakery to be a part of the community space.

“The family and the family’s friends would come and support the children interns. They proudly say, ‘I’m related to this person.’

An intern serving his family member. Parents, relatives and friends often drop by to see their young ones at work and to support them.

“They take pictures of their loved ones with me at work and post them. This is what we value. It’s the relationships. I tell my team that when we accept the kids, the entire family becomes our friends.”

Thrina has found that the internship benefits families in other ways. It provides them with a new talking point, opening up communication between parent and child.

It’s work, not play

At the end of the day, though, Thrina is emphatic about the fact that the internship is still work, albeit a scaled down version. That is why each shift is at least four hours so that the children have enough time to learn.

“This is work. It has to be serious. It comes with hardship, discipline and restrictions.”

The work can sometimes be repetitive and mundane but, through that, the children learn a good work ethic.

Cleaning, cashier work and the occasional culinary duties may not require much technical skill, but woven into the mundane tasks are a myriad values.

Hair, nails and clothes are to be neat, and posture straight as an early lesson on presenting a professional image at work. No handphones are allowed. Productivity is emphasised – slow workers get a mini lecture – as is punctuality.

Through the daily grind, Thrina tries to impart important values such as professionalism, punctuality and productivity.

“When they can handle coming in at 9am, I sometimes give them the 8am to 4pm shift to test if they can wake up early. Can they have a later lunch and hold their hunger?

“We do quality control on their work and teach them the importance of consistency in products. When you are the customer, you will care that one product is bigger than the other.

“We try to let them experience what it’s like to lose a bit of their freedom. We put them in real work situations.

“We teach them about volunteering, sharing their time with others and how money is not the single most important motivator because, if we look at money alone, society would be in trouble.

“But we also praise them and let them know that we are grateful that they are sacrificing their time with us, that it means something to us.”

Cleaning up trays and tongs may not be the most glamourous of tasks but the interns learn that, in a real work situation, there will be some tasks that are part of the job scope that may not be as exciting as others.

As a reward, the children are sometimes given bakes from the shop. Some ask to pick their favourites. This becomes a teachable moment, too.

“I say, ‘No.’ The policy is that they cannot choose. Out in the world, if something is free, you cannot choose. We explain the rules.

“You take only the rejects, the ugly ones or the excess. You cannot take things that are already in short supply. If you want to eat something else, you pay. Our staff also go by this.”

Over the years, Thrina has fine-tuned the system.

Though they lack the technical skills to work in the kitchen, the interns can still be assigned simple duties like mixing ingredients.

“No friends. We have had kids who say, ‘I want to do the internship with my friends.’ Initially, we took friends. But they would chat with each other and get distracted.”

When the internship is done, the children come away with precious lessons that stand them in good stead in life and in the classroom, plus they get an insider look at how a commercial bakery is run.

A thank you card given to Thrina by a student at the completion of his internship.

“Most kids walk away saying it is an eye opener. They realise it is not easy. One product can require over 30 things to do, from the planning to the preparing.

“They become more sensible in terms of looking at things, appreciating the work, the food and what it means to be learning.”

RELATED STORIES:

“We may serve bread, but we want to share the true Bread of Life”: Thrina Low of Bakery Brera

“We’re supporting you!”: 150 children bake goodies to encourage migrant workers

For Deepavali, this is how a 5-year-old boy shows love to his “uncles at work”

At home: Hospitality in the house of God