By Ian Neubauer
UK organisation The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) is running a series of profile-raising events in Australia this month.
The events will consist of public relations activities in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth and individual meetings with senior industry figures.
WSET is already represented in Australia, with five centres delivering programs ranging from a one-day Foundation level Wine Certificate up to the Advanced Certificate in Wines & Spirits.
WSET’s flagship qualification — the Diploma in Wines & Spirits, the equivalent in UK terms to the first year of a university degree — has been run in the past, and the goal is to lead students up the educational ladder up to diploma level and beyond.
WSET chief executive Ian Harris said Australia was a major growth area for the organisation’s programs.
“In the first six months of our current academic year, we have had just over 200 students in Australia who have taken a course and gained a WSET qualification, but we have just scratched the surface,” he said.
“We feel that Australia offers a bigger potential for us because there is already a strong wine culture and many multinational wine and spirits companies are based in or have regional offices in Australia.
“We also have a base of good educators, including many Masters of Wine based in Australia, and more significantly, WineAustralia is a Corporate Patron of WSET, offering scholarships to top WSET students throughout the world”.
In Australia currently the three major WSET Approved Program Providers are, Sydney Wine Academy in NSW, Prince Wine Store in Victoria and Stuart Barrie in South Australia.
To find out more about WSET, click here.