Baking & Pastry Arts

Types of Degrees Baking & Pastry Arts Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many baking and pastry arts/baker/pastry chef graduations there were in 2018-2019 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate’s Degree	1,860
Undergraduate Certificate	1,762
Basic Certificate	1,272
Bachelor’s Degree	70

What Baking & Pastry Arts Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to baking and pastry arts were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Baking & Pastry Arts Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Skills for Baking & Pastry Arts Majors

When studying baking and pastry arts, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Time Management - Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Baking & Pastry Arts Majors

Baking and Pastry Arts majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Baking & Pastry Arts Major?

People with a baking and pastry arts degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Bakers	7.6%	$26,520
Chefs and Head Cooks	9.6%	$48,460

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Baking & Pastry Arts?

This major is dominated by women with about 86% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of baking and pastry arts majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	74
Black or African American	282
Hispanic or Latino	351
White	896
International Students	106
Other Races/Ethnicities	151

Geographic Diversity

Baking & Pastry Arts appeals to people across the globe. About 5.7% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Baking & Pastry Arts Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $28,660 to $52,160 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to baking and pastry arts. This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Baking & Pastry Arts

Some degrees associated with baking and pastry arts may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for baking and pastry arts careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	12.0%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	33.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	15.9%
Some College Courses	8.6%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	24.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	6.0%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	2.0%

Online Baking & Pastry Arts Programs

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 211 schools offered some type of baking and pastry arts/baker/pastry chef program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	100	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	112	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	93	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	100	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Baking & Pastry Arts Worth It?

The median salary for a baking and pastry arts grad is $28,660 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Baking & Pastry Arts

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to baking and pastry arts.

Major	Number of Grads
Culinary Arts/Chef Training	12,205
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts	4,765
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager	1,802
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant	1,210
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services	734
Bartending/Bartender	289
Culinary Science/Culinology	225
Institutional Food Workers	193
Wine Steward/Sommelier	112
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager	98
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter	46

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Army Europe Images under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.