NZ Baking Industry

Cathy Scott - Rangiora Bakery

Cathy Scott, of Rangiora Bakery

For Cathy Scott, baking was definitely her first choice when deciding on a qualification. Cathy had worked as an assistant at Rangiora Bakery for a year after leaving school before starting her qualification. She has now completed all her distance learning modules through Crop & Food Research, and has only one more block course to attend at CPIT. “I just want to get it done, get my qualification and move on to bigger and better things,” she says.

For Cathy, bigger and better means eventually working on a cruise ship. “I want to finish my qualification, work on a better wage for a while and then travel the world working on a cruise ship.”

Cathy’s days vary according to a three week roster, so she has different start times, the earliest of which is 3am when all the breads are started. “We mainly make breads and pastries. I enjoy the 5am start because that’s when the Danish pastries are made, but having variety is great.” Cathy finishes at 11am, unless she has to do overtime, and says that these early finishes are what helped her finish her qualification so quickly. “I had the whole day to work on my distance learning because everyone else is still at work. Although sometimes I have a nap!”

Cathy says she enjoys having afternoons off and couldn’t imagine being stuck in an office all day. “I enjoy the physical side of the job. The 3am start is tough so I usually go to bed at about 8pm the night before. During the week I don’t go out, but on the weekends, even if I’m working I still have a good social life.”