As a kid, growing up in the River Murray town of Mannum, Ashley Schmidt wasn’t sure what he wanted to do for a living.

He knew that he had practical skills and probably didn’t want to go to university, and he enjoyed the part time work he was doing at the bakery, so at the end of Year 12 he took up his boss’s offer of an apprenticeship.

It wasn’t always the easiest work, and there were many times when young Ashley was heading to work at the same time his mates were heading home from the pub.

But he enjoyed the craftsmanship, the look of joy on his customers’ faces when they bit into one his creations, the sense of pride in his products.

What the young apprentice baker could never have guessed, though, was that he was starting out on a career that would take him around the globe, visiting some of the world’s great food capitals and forging lifelong friendships through a shared love of all things doughy.

Ashley is now a lecturer and trainer in Bakery Studies at TAFE SA, helping to shape the next generation of young bakers.

On top of that – the cream in the éclair, if you will – is his role as the Skill Competition Manager (Bakery) at the International WorldSkills Competition.

It’s this role that has seen Ashley travel to locations as widespread as France, China and Brazil with young Australian competitors to test their skills against the best in the world.

The best way to think about WorldSkills, Ashley says, is to imagine the Olympic Games with bakers, chefs, hairdressers, carpenters and plumbers instead of gymnasts, sprinters and high jumpers.

Ashley’s involvement with WorldSkills began when he signed up as a competitor in the late nineties, where he won first place in the bread baking category.

This led to a two-week scholarship in the UK where he undertook a personal development and leadership course.

"That was an amazing opportunity," Ashley says.

"Looking back now, I probably didn’t realise at the time just how life-changing that would be."

By 2009 Ashley had begun teaching at TAFE SA, and not long after that he rekindled his relationship with WorldSkills, but this time not as a competitor but in a judging and coordinating role.

"After the 2014 national competition we had the opportunity to present a baker for the 2015 international comp, and I was the trainer for that young baker," he says.

"That competition was held in Sao Paulo in Brazil (pictured), and he did quite well – he finished sixth out of about 11 or 12 countries and that was our first time competing internationally."

Baking competitively in foreign countries is not, Ashley says, simply a matter of packing your recipes and hoping for the best. There are a lot of new factors to consider.

"You have different flour for a start," Ashley says.

"It was a four-day competition and he had to make a wide range of products, including croissants, sourdoughs, baguettes, brioche and an artistic piece of dough.

Basically, you get given a test project. You've got to practice for given recipes … and you have to replicate that in a foreign environment.

"That was a massive learning curve."

As well as being the trainer for the young baker, Ashley was also second-in-charge of coordinating the baking category, meaning he had to organise machinery, sponsorships and everything else that helps a competition of that size to run.

Two years later he did the same role in Abu Dhabi, and two years after that he took on the role of Skilled Competition Manager in Kazan, Russia, a job that saw him take on even more organising  - an interesting challenge in a part of the world where English isn’t widely spoken.

"And there are always surprises – you might get over there and they’ve changed the flour at the last minute, or a certain bit of equipment isn’t what you were thinking it was going to be," Ashley laughs.

Covid threw a spanner in the works and saw the 2021 Shanghai competition cancelled, but in 2022 the baking category was able to be staged in Switzerland, and this year saw a full-scaled WorldSkills in Lyon, France (pictured).

Baking in France, perhaps the spiritual home of all things bread, was quite an experience Ashley says.

"Lyon was our biggest competition yet, with 23 countries competing," he says.

"All of the competitors are under 23 years old, so to watch them in France working and building connections was phenomenal."

And while Ashley gets a lot of satisfaction from watching young bakers learn, he says he’s always learning new skills himself, skills that he can bring back to his role lecturing at TAFE SA.

"You see these different techniques, different ways of doing things," he says.

"You’re always learning."

And for young people considering baking as a career? Ashley says they should embrace it wholeheartedly.

"If you have a love for food you should consider coming and doing some of the introductory courses that we offer," he says.

"It might just ignite that passion and start something great.

"My advice for anyone starting out – whether they’re a baker, a builder, a hairdresser – is to take every opportunity that comes your way and give everything a crack.

"When I was doing an apprenticeship in Mannum in the 1990s I never thought that I would have the opportunities that I’ve had.

"To be teaching at TAFE SA, to have had the chance to travel, it all came from giving that first competition a crack."

To find out more about studying baking at TAFE SA click here (external site) (external site) (external site).

To learn more about WorldSkills click here. (external site)