We are a working bakery and café serving real customers and employing a professional team. Every cake sold and coffee served helps create a workplace in which women can put their skills into practice and build their employment experience.
hours of paid employment for Luminary graduates, up 60% in two years
graduates in paid jobs: 25% of our team
hours of paid work placements
days of work experience
Across the last three years, graduates have worked 9,322 paid hours at Luminary Bakery. These are hours spent as part of a commercial team, producing and selling food, serving customers, working alongside colleagues and earning a wage.
Five of our six graduate staff started with us as trainees and have stayed on as employees. They now work as production bakers and café team members, and one has progressed to Senior Production Baker, helping to lead the kitchen team.
“Being offered an apprenticeship has given me the confidence to join the workforce again whilst being a single parent… shown me that a workplace can be an enjoyable place.”
Bakery trainee, 2026
“Everyone was so friendly and helpful from the moment I arrived.”
Work-experience participant, May 2026
Hosting a trainee costs around £630 a week. For every £1 a trainee earns, we invest more than £1.50 in the support around her. That is the difference between a regular job and a supported route back into work.
£21,400 funds a full six-month traineeship plus 28 work-experience days.
Our new King's Cross site will double hosting capacity and create new roles graduates can move into, from front of house to pastry and cake decorating.
We are working with the National Bakery School at LSBU to offer short, industry-recognised qualifications designed around the 16-hour working week that suits women on the programme.
Until now we have counted outputs. From 2026–27 we will track outcomes too: confidence and skills surveys at the start and end of each placement, and where women progress to next.
None of this happens without our customers, funders and partners. Every order placed and every grant given keeps a real workplace open to women building their next step. An enormous thank you to everyone who chooses to purchase with purpose.