Travel Blob

Choosing a Pastry School in France

11:10

Ever since I made up my mind to transform my passion into a career, I have started to look for a professional French pastry school that would suit me. At the time, the only one I knew is Le Cordon Bleu which has been so well marketed for the past 10, 20 years that even my parents know about this School. But, all we have heard of is the name so I decided to do more research into this area.

To be honest, at the beginning, my choice was Le Cordon Bleu plus they had 2 campuses in Australia. It seemed like the best option for me because I don’t need to worry too much about the expenses of living overseas. However, apart from my passion in pastry, I have always wanted to live in a foreign country. After deep thoughts, I decided to find a school in Paris instead.

After about a month of research, I found there were several schools in France whom offered Pastry class for international students where it was taught in English.

I have made a summary table for the main areas I valued:

	Le Cordon Bleu	FERRANDI Paris	Lenôtre Paris	ENSP	Gastronomicom
Course	Diplôme de Pâtisserie	Intensive Professional Program	Lenôtre Master Class	French Pastry Arts	Diploma in Gastronomic Pastry
Training	Approximately 9 months	5 months	28 weeks	5 months	6 months
Internship	2 Months (not guarantee)	3-6 Months	Lenôtre production workshops	2 Months	6 month
Class Size	Small Class	12 Maximum per class	Small Class	Small Class	Small Class
Location	Paris 15th Arrondissement	Paris 6th Arrondissement	Plaisir	Versailles	Agde
Price	€ 21,600	€ 20,000 February 2016	€ 29,400 VAT	€ 18,500	€ 16,504
Tuition Include	- Uniform - Equipment	- Uniform - Equipment - Excursion Fee - Lunch at school during training	- Uniform - Equipment	- Uniform - Equipment - Excursion - Breakfast at school during training	- Uniform - Equipment
Intake per year	5 intakes: - January - March - June - September - November	2 intakes: - February - September	3 intakes: - January - April - August	2 intakes: - April - September	3 intakes: - January - April - September
Housing	No*	No*	No*	No*	Approx. € 370/month

* School will assist student in finding housing

Please be aware that there are actually more culinary schools in France but I only looked into these 5 specifically.

Therefore after considering all the above factors, I decided on choosing FERRANDI Paris because I love the fact that they organise so many hours in the kitchen which means as a student, I will have many opportunities to enhance my practical skills. I believe it’s always practice makes perfect rather than reading a textbook. Also, it is limited to 12 persons per class to ensure each student receives a comprehensive experience and individual feedback can be given from the chef.

Another main reason I chose FERRANDI is that there is a 3-6 month compulsory internship included in the course. It can give me an opportunity to gain first hand industry experience. We all know that what we learn from school is not the same as when we start working.

I hope this post will help any future culinary students in choosing the right school for you.

Applying for the Tier 5 (Youth Mobility Scheme) visa

11:00

The whole process took around 3 weeks from when I applied online to when I received my passport with the visa on it. Here’s a quick rundown about the visa and a brief guide on how to apply for it.

Why the Tier 5 visa?

I met all the criteria for the visa and it felt like the easiest option for me to be granted permission to work in the UK before actually having to secure a job straight away.

In order to apply for the visa, you must meet the following requirements:

want to live and work in the UK for up to 2 years
are aged 18 to 30
have £1,890 in savings
have certain types of British Nationality or are from certain countries (in my case, I'm an Australian citizen)
meet the other eligibility requirements (such as not having children who you are financially responsible for etc.)

For more information, please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/tier-5-youth-mobility/overview

How to apply for it?

Before jumping ahead and going online to apply straight away (I know we all are very excited to move overseas!), here is a short checklist I followed beforehand:

Set an arrival date as to when you will enter the UK
From the arrival date, count back 3 months which will give you the date you can apply for your visa online e.g. If you plan to enter the UK on 10 September, you can apply for your visa on 10 June
The week before 10 June, go to your bank and ask for your current bank balance. The balance must be as of that date e.g. 5 June and to be safe, I also asked my bank to stamp and date it. The balance needs to be equivalent to or higher than £1890.
Also in the week before 10 June, go take a passport photo, meeting the requirements set out on the website - https://www.gov.uk/photos-for-passports

Here’s a more visual timeline:

After getting these documents ready, it’s time to started!

The process is actually quite smooth, it has a step-by-step process that you can follow:

Start the online application, it will prompt you to set up an account with your email - https://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa
Complete your personal details, it goes into asking for your travel history, I ended up typing out like 20 trips…Better be safe than sorry
“Sign” the declaration
Depending on what your initial UK address is, it will locate the closest BRP Collection Location (which I’ve noticed to be Post offices). It’s important to choose this correctly as you wouldn't want to have to travel hours to collect the BRP.
Select a time to have your Biometrics appointment
Calculate the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), it prompts you to sign up for an IHS account. Answer a few simple questions and in my case, my surcharge was $0. Even though I didn’t have to pay anything, it still sent me an email with the IHS reference number via email. It is important to bring this email along to your Biometrics appointment.
Pay the £225 visa application fee

Once you go through all the steps, it will prompt you to review all your details before lodgement. It will then produce a PDF file of your application for your Biometrics appointment.

Biometrics Appointment & What documents to bring?

I had an 8:30 appointment in the Sydney office, the whole process took approximately 45 minutes. It’s advised you arrive around 30 minutes before your appointment time.

Documents I brought to the Biometrics Appointment:

Email with Biometrics Appointment time
Completed visa application form (PDF file)
Current passport
Passport photo
Bank Statement
Email with IHS reference number
Email with payment reference number for visa application fee
Points Based System Appendix 7 (this isn’t one of the require documents, but I brought it along anyway) - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/261448/vaf9-app7.pdf

For more information on documents:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/343698/document_t5_yms.pdf

At the visa office, a staff member would go through your documents to make sure you have everything that’s required before they seal it in an envelope and send it away! They would then take another photo along with your fingerprints.

Collecting passport after decision

Approximately 1.5 weeks after my Biometrics appointment, I received an email stating a decision has been made about my visa application. However, it does not actually tell you what the decision is (anxious wait!). Two days after receiving the initial email, I received another email stating my passport was ready for collection.

Collecting the passport was very easy, matter of turning up at the office with photo ID. They give you everything back in a sealed envelope along with a letter stating the decision and the location and when your BRP can be collected.

***Important points!!!

These two things nearly caught me out so if you don’t want to read all the boring stuff at the top, please at least read these two points!

You have within 30 days of the specified arrival date to be in the UK e.g. as above example, if you specified 10 Sept, you have to be in the UK by 10 Oct.
Give yourself at least 10 days after specified arrival date before going on a holiday outside of the UK as the BRP may not be ready until a week later (the letter with decision will state the date when the BRP can be collected). E.g. BRP not ready until 17 Sept if arrival date set at 10 Sept.

Will keep you all posted when I have arrived in the UK and gone to collect my BRP (fingers crossed, no dramas!)

Hope this has been helpful for anyone interested. Please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments if you know the process has since changed. The information was correct as of October 2015.

Part 2
Collecting BRP

Now, that I have finally landed in the UK, I had 10 days from landing to collect my Biometric Residence Permit which is really like an ID card stating the end date of my visa.

My BRP collection point was at a post office located near the hotel I was staying in for the first little while. It was a very very simple process which took less than 15 minutes. I showed the person at the counter my letter stating the address of where I can pick up my BRP. Straight away, he came back with an envelope with my BRP inside.

From then on, I have kept it with me in my wallet and used it as ID when applying for jobs, to open a bank account, and get a mobile sim plan. I guess it acts like a passport and shows you have permit to stay and work in the UK.

Again, best of luck to anyone applying for the T5 visa, I will update and write about opening banks accounts and job applications in another post. "Watch this space!"

Travel Blob

Choosing a Pastry School in France

Applying for the Tier 5 (Youth Mobility Scheme) visa

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