7. Importance of continuing education
One can't consider that the student's apprenticeship is finished
once they leave their studies. The school's assignment is to give enough skills
to the students to be able to integrate the workforce but that does not imply
that they have comprehensive wine knowledge. Training is a continuous process
which aims to give employees better skills for their job and also participates
in their personal development. Wine lists are not static and so waiters have to
continually train to meet the customers' needs and restaurants owners'
requirements.
According to Gilles Martinet a French restaurateur,
professionals have a big responsibility to ensure continuing wine education in
restaurants which often leads to good results in term of motivation and helps
to gain employees loyalty. Being knowledgeable about wine for the staff gives
value when they are in front of the guests.
Wine training can be done through different streams. As soon as a
new wine reference is sold, employees should first taste the new wine and
should have information (wine and food pairing) on it in order to be coherent
in the selling process.
Restaurateurs would argue that is a question of time and they
don't have money to spend on continuous training. However in France
professional funds such as the FAFIH (acronym for Hospitality Industry Training
Fund) offer specific programmes for wine training. If
continuous education is sometimes seen as an expense in the
restaurant budget, there is undoubtedly a return on investment as waiters
become more confident when selling wine (and that also plays a great role in
the customer/waiter relationship). Distributors or winemakers should also take
part in the education process. Suppliers are a good source of supplementary
wine education.
«Wine can be one of the things that has a significant impact
on the restaurateur's bottom line» (GULTEK 2003). That is why wine
training must be scheduled as often as possible.
CONCLUSION
When looking at hospitality curricula in the Public educational
system, the wine education framework in France is important compared to other
countries and probably partially reflects the French wine market. Even if wine
consumption is decreasing the level of wine drunk per capita is one of the
highest in the world. The image of wine among young people and moreover
hospitality students is still vivid and which they seem to have partially
inherited from their parent's wine culture.
A few countries such as USA and England have left wine education
to private businesses. In France the Ministry of education offers students high
level curricula, which is a great strength compared to other countries. Anyone
in France can enrol on these programmes at fee levels which are not
expensive.
However the proportion of wine courses devoted to wine education
(except for sommelier curricula) are not proportional to the restaurants' wine
sales and moreover to the image the French would like to drive around the
world. With a closer look at hospitality curricula we can see that there are
few wine courses in numerous units; academics and vocational courses.
Consequently it is difficult, not to say impossible, for students to fulfil all
requirements for the exams and as soon as they enter the workforce they are not
confident enough to give basic advice to the customers. In other foreign
countries, such as Australia, the syllabus mainly focuses on vocational courses
and programmes are much more flexible. Furthermore the wine education process
tends to be theoretically rather than being practically orientated. Students
are supposed to learn a good part of the French appellation with sometimes only
three of four wine tastings during all their studies.
Private wine syllabuses in USA and UK are really successful in
their countries and in particular all around the world. Some of them are now
internationally recognised and become the rule for someone who wants to
undertake an international wine programme. On the contrary, one of the main
characteristics of the French wine syllabus is that there is a lack of openness
to foreign vineyards. More internationally open sommelier curricula would have
a more positive effect, give better credibility and global recognition to the
French education framework. Another aspect is that even if French sommeliers
are still well represented in internationals sommeliers competitions, there are
now numbers of foreign competitors who know very well the French vineyard and
who have probably developed better skills in
internationals wines. Consequently that probably leads to more
difficulties when French sommeliers compete with foreign wine professionals.
Even if the amount of imported wine in France is still in its
infancy, more foreign wines are sold in supermarkets and wine shops than ever
before and now even wine newspapers write about foreign producing countries. It
would seem normal to focus more on these wines as they also represent a part of
customer's wine consumption.
Learning the wine consumption habits of foreigners is also
important and selling techniques adapted to these customers should be taught.
Chinese people as an example put more emphasis on brand name and less on
varietal while New Zealand consumers are aware about variety (Tach, 2008)
In France, except for some private hospitality schools such as
«Lenotre», programmes are not internationally orientated and
hospitality schools do not offer any programmes for international students. The
best way to highlight and promote a wine culture in a producing country is to
welcome foreign students (prospective customers) and to provide them with wine
courses, at least in the English language. Most hospitality schools in France
have premises (sometimes located in the French vineyard) which could easily
welcome international students and offer them high level national sommelier
programmes dedicated to the French vineyard (and foreign vineyard) and
recognised by the sommeliers associations. At the moment, The Macon
Davayé School (agricultural school) is the only public school in France
which is authorised to prepare an international wine exam (WSET exam, including
diploma).
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