How does one become a WSET Certified Wine Educator?

Becoming a certified WSET wine educator is an exciting undertaking for wine enthusiasts who want to share their knowledge. WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) offers structured courses to turn wine lovers into professional wine educators. This requires not only commitment and passion on the subject of wine, but also sound preparation.

The minimum entry requirement for the course is a WSET Level 3 qualification. With this qualification, and after successfully passing the WSET Educator course, you are approved to teach up to WSET Level 2. If, however, you have the WSET Diploma in Wines (Level 4) qualification, you can teach up to WSET Level 3 after passing the WSET Educator course. An additional Educator course for teaching the Diploma is being planned for the future, but for now, you can teach the Diploma if you have passed the Diploma and Educator courses.

It is important to note that you are not able to register directly for the WSET Certified Educator course – this must be done for you by the WSET-approved wine school at which you will be teaching. Alternatively, you can set up your own WSET wine school, for which you must also have completed the Educator course and WSET Level 3 or the Diploma.

If you have been registered by your wine school in London, you will first be put on a waiting list, as the courses are very popular.

You can also sign up for an online course or, as I did, attend the course at the WSET School London in Bermondsey Street.

I can highly recommend the course in London, where it is a privilege to experience such motivated and excellent teachers in person.

You will need to prepare and learn a great deal before the course, as you will be expected to know the structure of the individual WSET courses and at exactly which level you are expected to teach at in the different stages.

In addition, an online preparation course will teach you the didactic structure of the courses so that you can teach the content in an engaging way, e.g., with the help of active learning methods. Starting the Educator course well prepared is highly recommended – otherwise you won’t be getting much sleep! And over the duration of the course, there won’t be time for sightseeing in London, so you will need to plan extra days for this.

What is expected of you in the exam?

You will need to give instruction on a wine region, adapted to the level you want to teach later. In my case, the region was the Central Valley in Chile, for Level 3. You will have to deliver your lesson twice, before being assessed during a third lesson. The first two lessons will be evaluated together with you, and you will receive suggestions for improvements for the next time.

You will also deliver a tasting of a given wine at distinction level in collaboration with the students. In my case, this was a mature Sauternes. Here, the biggest issue is time and always involving the class. You are given 15 minutes to introduce the wine region, followed by 10 minutes for the tasting – which can be quite tight.

The teachers are highly motivated and you have the opportunity to learn a great deal from them. And because the content is so condensed, there is a big advantage to being well prepared – to ensure that you ultimately pass.