Student café enters seventh season

Hospitality tutor Bex Carr (right) in the Little Campus Cafe with some of her students, Atareta Christie (left), Paige Bowie and Jazmine Dangen. Photo / Karen Hughes/Training For You

The bright autumn sunshine signals a new season for Whanganui's very own student training café.

The Little Campus Café is open again now for the seventh time since its inception in October 2019.

Located at the Training For You tertiary education campus in Ingestre St, the Little Campus Café opens three times a year to provide real-life work experience for students on the Retail and Hospitality training programmes.

For five weeks at a time, members of the public can experience the barista techniques, food delivery and customer service skills of students that are studying towards the New Zealand Certificate in Hospitality (Customer Service and Sales Support), Level 2.

The café staff have worked through 10 weeks of theory and practical training.

The latest cohort on the 15-week fulltime programme is an all-female group with a variety of plans and goals for future careers.

Current student Jazmine Dangen began her tertiary education on the Training For You literacy and numeracy programme, and is now picking up a variety of skills on the hospitality programme.

She says the course is much more than she expected, "It's not just learning how to make coffee."

When asked what they've enjoyed most about the programme so far, the group is quick to nominate their tutor, Bex Carr, as being a real asset to their experience. Jazmine says, "Bex is amazing, and everyone at Training For You is so nice."

For five weeks (March 28-April 27), the Little Campus Cafe is open to the public from 9am-2pm, Monday to Friday, at the Training For You campus; 148 Ingestre St.

The café serves barista-blend coffees, herbal teas, and iced frappes daily, and muffins and scones. The prices reflect the training environment accordingly — large coffees are just $3.50. Alternative milk options like almond milk and soy milk are available also.

Free parking can be accessed outside the Training For You campus, and around the block.