A Starbucks Korea barista trains senior citizens during the coffee franchise’s seminar program. Courtesy of Starbucks Korea
Starbucks Korea will resume a program training senior citizens as baristas starting in August, aiming to train about 500 people by the end of the year in partnership with the Korea Association of Community Senior Club, the company said Tuesday.
Starbucks Korea also plans to open a second training center this year, which would double its annual training capacity to more than 1,000 senior baristas, up from its current facility in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province. The two centers on Monday signed an agreement on the new site.
The company has run the program with the Korea Association of Community Senior Club and the Ministry of Health and Welfare since 2019, producing a total of about 2,000 graduates and more than 3.1 billion won ($2.1 million) in cumulative support for training, facilities and ingredients. Training covers both practical skills such as espresso extraction and latte art, as well as knowledge of coffee origins and service.
Starbucks Korea will also hold its fifth Senior Barista Latte Art Competition this year, with preliminary registration opening in late July and rounds running from September to October.
“Winning the latte art competition gave me the confidence to take on a second act in life as a barista,” a 70-year-old barista at the Daegu Buk-gu Senior Club who won last year’s competition said in a statement.
A Korea Association of Community Senior Club official said the group hopes the new training center will let more seniors take on new challenges through barista training.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
