Hear from honoree and long time worksite partner Rob Van Sickle, owner and founder of Polkadog Bakery
Apprentice Learning is celebrating 10 years of providing real-world work experiences for eighth graders. At such a critical period in a young person’s life, these are the opportunities that ignite growth and change and spark passions and interests. We work alongside business partners who support us in exposing young people to as many careers as possible in the hope of sparking an interest in careers that have the potential to shape their own future workforce.
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we are highlighting the incredible partners we’ve had. Polkadog Bakery in Jamaica Plain was one of our first worksite partners and, over the years, hosted 17 Apprentices! We talked with Robert Van Sickle, founder and owner of Polkadog Bakery, and learned more about his experience hosting Apprentices. Photo (left): Rob poses with his dog Velcro
Tell me about Polkadog Bakery and your connection to Apprentice Learning?
We started our business in 2002 in the South End of Boston. We moved to Jamaica Plain and opened a store there too. We were connected to Apprentice Learning through Helen Russell. Helen approached us ten years ago or so, right at the beginning of Apprentice Learning, and wanted to know if we would be interested in hosting some students, showing them the ropes of a business, what it looks like to run a retail store, helping customers, stocking shelves and just the day-to-day of an employee of a retail business. For me, I was just coming into parenthood, thinking about the value of my experience as a younger person in the world and being able to have a place that would be willing to not only take me in but also teach me some of the skills that were necessary. So, it was like a no brainer. It made sense for us to jump in with both feet.
Describe your experience with Apprentice Learning reflecting on their 10 year anniversary.
I would be telling a lie if I said I wasn’t nervous about how it was going to go. Because to be totally honest, a lot of the people that work for us are young, just out of college. Some are even in college. So you’re asking a person that hasn’t maybe even figured out what they want to do with their life to bring these kids along, right? I was nervous about asking our staff to not only do their daily chores, keep the store running and provide customer service, but also have these other folks in their charge. I think that was an important growing process for all the managers who worked with us over the 10 years that we’ve been doing this.
I would say some managers have been better at it than others, and that’s just the nature of how it goes. Then, recently, we had a store manager, Kevin, who was very important in developing our internal program. Apprentice Learning has a great program, and they bring the Apprentices to us, but Kevin has taken that internal role and owned it in terms of developing almost like a curriculum for the things that we want to impart. That it’s not just stocking shelves and doing busy work. That there are other skills involved in operating a retail store, and I think a lot of people go through life and probably don’t really imagine what those skills are. But, primarily for us, it’s people skills. That is a really important life skill that we teach at the store because it’s fundamental to everything that we do. Yes, stocking the shelves is important, and, yes, keeping the store clean is important, but the interpersonal relationships – the connections that we make with our customers and with each other as staff members – that’s hard to quantify. It’s probably our most important skill that we try to impart on people, both employees and Apprentice Learning students when they come through the door.
Do you have any recommendations for other business owners or leaders who may want to partner with Apprentice Learning?
I think I would say that it’s natural to be worried about the value because you might think I’m going to have to work more. My staff is going to get asked to do even more. I think that’s a natural feeling, right? I think a lot of people are like, “Oh, boy” especially for people who are running their own business. So, my advice is don’t be afraid and steer into the program. Really make it what you need it to be as a business owner, and that will then help the people that are there tenfold. We went into it like if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it. I think that was really where we started to see the program become something valuable for all.
Join us for our 10th anniversary celebration
Thursday, May 4th from 6:00-9:00 PM
Loring Greenough House, 12 South St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Interested in becoming a worksite partner? Click here to learn more.
