We train unemployed youth to become coffee baristas, equipping them with a globally recognised skill and the potential of a better future.

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90%

Employment rate

Red Band Barista Academy holds the outstretched hands of the unemployed and teaches those same hands to pour outstanding coffee and grasp opportunity.

A New Skill unlocks a world
of potential

The Red Band project educates and empowers. Our young graduates emerge with a new sense of confidence in themselves, their potential and their purpose. Acquiring the skill to make global standard coffee creates a desire to develop and showcase other innate talents, and instills a belief  that they can not only better their own life, but that of their families and communities as well.

600+
Graduates
05
Academies

2 Clear routes to employment

Coffee baristas are in massive demand both locally and internationally. We have the potential to place successful Red Band graduates from within Africa into jobs every year via our two well established routes to employment.

Route 1

INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

We place our Red Band trained baristas with industry icons such as Seattle Coffee Company, Vida E Cafe as well as with independent coffee bars and restaurants. Our goal is to ensure all graduates are employed and valued long-term employees that are consistently promoted to managerial positions, and continue to expand their skills and abilities within the industry.

Route 2

RED BAND SKILLS BAR

Outstanding graduates can apply for a one year internship at a Red Band Skills Bar which is set up in partnership with companies who are able to invest in their communities. These companies host a coffee bar which our Red Band baristas manage and operate. The Red Band Skills Bar allows the barista to develop managerial skills and in turn greatly contributes to the company's customer service as well as their internal staff skills development plan.

5 Weeks of training

Week 1-2
JOB READINESS COURSE
Week 2-4
HISTORY OF COFFEE MACHINE MAINTENANCE
ESPRESSO EXTRACTION
MILK TEXTURING
Week 4-5
WEEK-LONG WORK SHADOW
graduation

Celebrating achievement

Graduation day is something we consciously celebrate with our new baristas. On this special day the coffee flows (sometimes tears do too) and the smiles are endless.”

A symbol of excellence

Each barista receives what has become iconic in our culture – a red band, representing ubuntu and our ‘band of baristas.’

How the brand started

1 SIMPLE VISION

Combine a passion for coffee and a love for humanity

3 CLOSE FRIENDS

Shaun, Ryan and Jo

A DEFINED GOAL

Provides excellent coffee training and real job opportunities for youths

THE RESULT

Combine a passion for coffee and a love for humanity

Coffee for Heroes

Front-line workers were unarguably the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic. In support of their efforts, Redband set up mobile coffee counters at hospitals and offered community-sponsored coffees to medical professionals made by our very own baristas. 10 hospitals were served over 3000 cups of coffee in Nelson Mandela Bay, Cape Town and Jinga, Uganda.

Our global partners

Impact Stories

Gqe­berha barista academy wins top award

November 10, 2022

Gqe­berha’s Red Band Barista Academy recently received one of the highest accol­ades of suc­cess in the national cof­fee industry.

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Milk hearts and a bubbly barista: Gqeberha’s coffee dynamo relishes the sweet aroma of success

November 15, 2021

Barista Babsie Mtya went from being an unemployed graduate to owning her own coffee shop, fulfilling a dream and putting a kick in Gqeberha’s coffee scene.

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How Do you Tackle Youth Unemployment? A Barista Academy

October 8, 2015

Taking the Red Band Barista Academy from a dream to a feasible business plan wasn’t easy. There were so many questions we had to answer: How long should the course be? How in-depth should we go?

Read More

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