ISLII exists because Nairobi's coffee scene grew faster than the talent to staff it. We train the people that gap is waiting for.
Kenya grows some of the world's best coffee.For years, almost none of it was served properly at home.
That gap is what started this school. Cafés were opening across Nairobi faster than anyone could staff them — and owners kept telling the same story: they could buy a good machine, but they could not find people who knew how to run it.
So we built the training that was missing. Not a lecture course with a certificate at the end, but a working bar where students spend their days doing the actual job: dialling in grinders, texturing milk, pouring under pressure, resetting a station, holding a queue together.
We opened in 2024, and in that time more than 500 students have trained with us — going on to work as baristas and supervisors across Nairobi, and in a growing number of cases to open cafés of their own.
Students Trained
Graduates working across Nairobi and beyond
Programmes
Across coffee, beverage, pastry and bakery
Verifiable Certificates
Every certificate carries a QR an employer can check
Three principles.Everything else follows from them.
Repetition over theory
You cannot read your way to a good rosetta. We build the syllabus around volume of practice, because technique in this trade lives in your hands, not your notes. Students pour, dial in and steam every single day they're with us.
Assessed, not attended
Every programme ends in a practical assessment on live equipment. If you cannot demonstrate the outcome, you do not get the certificate — which is the only thing that makes the certificate worth anything to an employer.
Trained for the rush
Anyone can make one good drink in a quiet room. We train under time pressure, with ticket queues and simulated service, because that is the condition the job is actually performed in.
You train on what you'll be hired to run.
There is no teaching-grade equipment here. Everything in the building is the same class of kit you will meet in a working café on your first shift.
The classroom
Theory sessions on extraction, ratios, menu costing and hygiene
The training bar
Multi-group commercial espresso machines and on-demand grinders
The cold station
Blenders, juicers, shakers and sealing equipment for the full cold menu
Seven reasons students choose us over everywhere else.
Anyone can rent a machine and call it a school. These are the things that decide whether you actually leave employable.
Trainers From The Trade
Every trainer has run a bar commercially — through real rushes, real complaints and real margins. You learn how it is actually done, not how a manual says it should be.
Hands On The Machine, Daily
You are on live equipment from day one. No lecture theatres, no waiting your turn behind a crowd. Skill in this trade is built by repetition, so we build in the repetitions.
International Standards
Our syllabus follows the extraction science, milk technique and hygiene protocols used in specialty cafés worldwide — so your skills travel as far as your ambition does.
Commercial Equipment
Multi-group espresso machines, on-demand grinders, precision scales and full brew-bar kit. The equipment you train on is the equipment you will be hired to operate.
Job-Ready On Day One
We train for employability: speed, consistency, workflow and composure under pressure. Graduates walk into trials able to hold a station, not just make one nice drink.
Certification That Counts
Every programme ends in a practical assessment — not an attendance sheet. Your certificate says you were tested, which is the only reason an employer should care about it.
Small Classes, Always
Intakes are capped so every student gets machine time and direct correction. You cannot learn this craft from the back of a room, so we do not build rooms with a back.
Come and see for yourself.
Book a visit, watch a live session, and talk to the trainers before you commit to anything. No pressure, no sales pitch.