University of Ilorin is known for its ingenuity and the ability of the institution to stand out amongst its peers, whether it is having an uninterrupted school calendar that doesn’t allow its students suffer the effects of strike, to providing the students with all the necessary amenities to succeed in their academics and school work. University of Ilorin has always found a way to make life better and easier on their students, part of the school’s ingenious initiative is a Skill Acquisition course that all students have to take in their third year. This skill acquisition course is known as Graduate Self Employment (GSE 301 or simply GSE). It is a course that aims at equipping students with the necessary basic skills in various fields to aid them in self-entrepreneurship where there is a bit of a hold-up in their chosen career or something they could engage in as students to help their financial situation. This was a viable decision because it gives the student means of making money without having to result to crimes to help them financially.

The skills that are taught under GSE 301 cuts across many works of life, from Furniture making, to Choreography, from Data Analysis and Blogging to Yoghurt making and Food preservation. The university tried to ensure it encapsulated all fields of life work in the course, so as not limit what the students had to choose from to engage in.

This initiative is a brilliant, one that needs to broadcast to the whole world and in furtherance of this, we were privileged to interview one of the head lecturers in charge of instructing the students in the skill of CAKE BAKING.

WawuGist: Good afternoon ma, we are delegates of wawugist, here to interview you about your skill, if you could please give us a brief introduction of yourself

Mrs Olufunke: Thank you and good day, I am Mrs Nnom Ikeola Olufunke, a Senior Technologist in the department of Home Economics and Food Sciences in UNILORIN.

WawuGist: First thing we have to ask is what you teach students that take on the skill of Cake baking

Mrs Olufunke: This year I had 80 students taking cake baking under me, what I do is to teach the students on everything they need to know to be successful caterers. I started with the basics for them, listing and teaching them all the tools and equipment necessary for caking baking such as an oven and mixer, also where they could be procure this materials. Then I thought them the ingredients necessary for baking a cake like flour and eggs amongst other things. After this two basic and vital things, we moved on to hygiene of the kitchen, how to properly clean the kitchen and all the equipment to be used in the process of cake making, because a clean kitchen and key equipment is key to having your cake taste just right, unclean or used equipment could spoil the taste or durability of a cake. After that, the next thing I taught them on was the techniques of baking, because implementing the right process and procedure in baking a cake is crucial to the end results. Another part of this is decorating the cake, what people don’t know is that in the baking world, there are different ways of decorating a cake, what people call ‘icing’, I had to teach them the basics in cake decoration. Finally, I taught them on means on advertising in the catering world.



WawuGist: We would like to know more on the skill of Cake Baking. What does it entail to engage in cake baking, what is the capital needed?

Mrs Olufunke: Cake Baking is not a capital intense skill, especially when the trainee is still in the learning process or just beginning. Cake baking can be done with most utensils and ingredient used in daily activities at home. For someone intending to expand to a business, at least 20,000 to 30,000 is needed to start.

In teaching the students, I was well aware that not all students and people can afford the money for the equipment for cake. At home we can improvise sauce pan with stainless ball, bottle to can be used in place of roll, knife can be used in place of the Trimmer. Coke Bottle’s cock can be used to make designs and many other home tools they could use as improvisation for baking equipment



WawuGist: Now, baking a cake is an important part of caking but it is not the only important part of caking baking…

Mrs Olufunke: Off course

WawuGist: You also have to make sales, what tactics and forms of marketing do you engage in to booster sales of cakes and how lucrative is caking baking with the aforementioned marketing

Mrs Olufunke: Marketing be done essentially through making awareness, publicising, advertising, designing business cards, handbills, radio jingles, TV and making use of the power of social media to make people aware of the business,

The business is a very lucrative one, it returns 100% value, and this solely depend how well you do your marketing. For example, you can bake a cake with just N5,000 can sell it N10,000 to N12,000.

One thing that separate the pro from the beginner is continuous learning, improve your skills, learn different methods of decorating cake. The most required skill to develop is the act of creativity, a baker just need to have this to booster the sales of his or her cake business. Also the understanding of colours (colour wheel) can be an added benefit or means to make the cake attractive.

WawuGist: If you were to meet someone that is considering engaging in a handy business, what would be your pitch to them about cake baking.

Mrs Olufunke: With all everything we’ve said, I will tell the person to go ahead, because the business is actually a lucrative one. When the right tools have been acquired, the person can bake his or her first cake under at least two weeks.

As you can see from prominent bakers, one can charge millions for baking a cake, people like cakes by Tosan charge millions for baking cakes. If they can perfect their craft and develop themselves, they can be top-tier bakers who make a steady and stable income from baking

WawuGist: Can you show us some pictures of the cake the students baked during this skill acquisition?

Mrs Olufunke: Yes


WawuGist: We at Wawugist appreciate you so much for sparing the time for this interview with us and for all the knowledge shared, we are very sure our readers would be excited to learn and also buy your excellent cakes.

Mrs Olufunke: It is my pleasure

Source: https://wawugist.com/a-look-at-the-university-of-ilorin-skill-acquisition-course-on-cake-baking/