Are you ready to turn your passion for baking into a career? If you love spending time in the kitchen perfecting cakes and pastries, then our one-year baking certificate is the next step to take you to the professional level.

Experience or not, you will learn the ins and outs of the modern bakery from production of breads and doughnuts to cookies and specialty cakes. Learn from and work alongside some of the region’s top pastry chefs in our Inland Northwest Culinary Academy.

You’ll leave this program knowing how to operate the most current bakery equipment and machinery, order bakery supplies and equipment, compute the cost of a finished bakery product and implement creative merchandising displays. You will mix, proof and bake breads, sweet goods, rolls, pies, cakes and variety breads. And you’ll become an expert in preparing and applying icings and filings to cakes, pies and pastries. You will also gain real experience in the student-run bakery on the SCC campus.

Detailed Information

In addition to tuition, some classes have lab fees for chef uniforms, decorating tools, and textbooks. You will also be required to obtain a Spokane County Health Card, which is currently $10. For more information, please read our Books and Tools list.

Physical Demands

The Inland Northwest Culinary Academy Professional Baking and Culinary Arts programs require physical effort to varying degrees.

The physical demands listed below are representative of those that must be met by the student to successfully perform the essential functions* of the program.

Students will be required to:

• Stand and/or walk for prolonged periods of time
• Use hands and fingers to handle and feel
• Reach with hands and arms
• Climb, balance, bend, kneel, crouch and crawl
• Taste, smell, talk, and hear
• Continuously lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, 
• Frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. 
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

*INCA/SCC is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where accessibility is prioritized. Any student who may have physical limitations or disabilities that may prevent or limit their ability to meet these essential functions are encouraged to contact SCC Disability Access Services to seek out allowable accommodation, resources and strategies to support student success. 

Safety Expectations

Students are expected to always be mindful of practicing industry safety standards. This may include:

• Using personal protective equipment (such as gloves or masks) when and where required
• Understanding and avoiding chemical hazards
• Practicing safe lifting techniques
• Following INCA/SCC emergency protocols 

Lab Environment

While performing tasks and assignments in kitchen and bakery labs, students are frequently exposed to moving mechanical parts, occasionally exposed to fumes or airborne particles, cleaning chemicals, cold, and heat. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

All students are required to report accidents to an instructor immediately.

No student may pose a direct threat to the health and safety of self or others by willfully engaging in unsafe behaviors.