Black Market Coffee, founded by Jessica and Angus Hol, has expanded into Sutherland Shire with a new specialty training hub at Kirrawee. Picture supplied

A new hub for specialty coffee training has landed in Sutherland Shire, bringing industry-standard education to the community.

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Opening inside Kirrawee's Climb Fit, the purpose-built barista training space is the latest venture from Jessica and Angus Hol, the founders of Black Market Coffee.

The couples journey began as cafe owners before they transitioned into roasting and wholesaling across Sydney. They noticed a major gap in the market. While Australia boasts one of the most advanced coffee cultures in the world, quality training remains scarce.

"We found there was lots of interest from the public - they wanted to learn how to make coffee," Mrs Hol said. "But it also became clear that cafe owners needed better training for their staff. There wasn't a lot of ongoing training. There is very little quality training out there. Most people have learnt on the job, and we found a lot of that training was outdated."

They launched courses, and became a Registered Training Organisation. Headquartered in Marrickville and owning Black Market Cafe in Thirroul on the south coast, expanding to Kirrawee was the natural next step.

The new shire hub features a specialised setup, running small group classes on four commercial machines. Rather than adapting a generic hospitality curriculum, the courses are custom-built by active industry professionals to welcome a diverse range of students.

"We work with schools, job agencies, help people who have fallen through the cracks or need a change in career," Mrs Hol said. "But also people who just want to learn for fun."

A new Kirrawee training space aims to lift the Sutherland Shire coffee culture. Picture supplied

Bookings are open for four core launch courses: the Foundations Barista Course for hospitality hopefuls, the Home Barista Course for coffee obsessives, a hands-on Latte Art Course, and a nationally recognised Accredited Barista Course. Future expansions will include intermediate, advanced, sensory, and filter coffee training.

When it comes to crafting the perfect cup, the founders take a balanced view of science and personal preference. "Making coffee is very formulaic. What is a good coffee is an opinion and is different for everyone," Mrs Hol said. "Great coffee starts with having a good raw quality bean. With milk, it's the right texture and temperature. Australia's coffee culture is so advanced, we have an amazing coffee culture."

With the shire boasting a thriving cafe community, finding good staff has become increasingly difficult as fewer people choose to enter the profession, Mrs Hol said. The pair hopes their new space will reinvigorate the shire scene and inspire a new generation of baristas.

"Sutherland Shire has a thriving cafe community and good staff are hard to come by," Mrs Hol said. "More are choosing not to enter the hospitality industry and we want to change that - to inspire people to go back into the industry. There may be a time in the future when the skills of a barista may not be required, but we will always want that human connection."