Culinary Apprenticeship Provides Career Pathway to Success

Kyron Baptiste had a difficult upbringing, living with various family members and shelters over the years and without a clear pathway for success and stability. However, Kyron’s dad instilled in him a life-long interest in cooking. At the age of 29, with a wife and young child and following years of dead-end jobs, he learned about an opportunity to join the Los Angeles Hospitality Training Academy’s (HTA) new Culinary Apprenticeship Program, which was just registered in May 2017. HTA is a project partner of the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute. As an apprentice, Kyron excelled at the program, learning safety, sanitation, food handling and preparation procedures through a combination of lectures and hands-on experience in the training kitchen. When executives from the Doubletree Hotel stopped by his class one day, they were drawn to him immediately and gave him an interview. Soon after, Kyron received a call with a job offer (pictured) to start as a Line Cook upon graduating from the class.