Centre for hospitality and culinary arts is all set to train professionals for the wine, beer and spirits industry
Photo: Flickr user François Rejeté (CC BY 2.0)
This coming fall, George Brown College’s (GBC) centre for hospitality and culinary arts (CHCA) will launch a unique post-graduate program in advanced wine and beverage and business management.
The program was developed with the high demand for advanced-trained professionals in the competitive food and beverage industry.
The beverages will encompass all three major alcohol categories: wine, beer and spirits. Another component of the program includes guided study tours in local and international breweries, wineries, distilleries and established beverage business houses throughout the program’s three semesters.
The program includes many additional certificates from the internationally recognized Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) and Prud’homme Beer Certification.
The zenith of this course is a compulsory European tour to introduce students to the international food and beverage industry.
During the course, the emphasis will be to teach the students to create a balance between beverage knowledge and business skills.
For business skills, students will be coached on organizational behaviour, strategic marketing and financial management, as well as get visits from industry professionals to talk about their experiences.
Beverage knowledge will stem from food and beverage pairings and advanced mixology as the main subject areas, along with international certifications from WSET and Prud’homme Beer School.
During the second and third semesters there is a compulsory component—the capstone project. The preparation and execution will be the ultimate showcase of the students’ holistic skills that were developed during the course.
On the European study tour, students would be able to apply their skills in a global business scenario. Also, they will plan to hold a food and pairing event at an international level completely developed by the students for the European food and beverage industry.
Talking about value for money, this course comes with additional internationally recognized certifications at no extra cost to students. Learning from top-notch experts in the industry will cost around $6,000. Comparatively, if anyone goes for these certifications from WSET and Pru’homme, the total fees are over $2,500 plus taxes without the learning component and business skills from industry experts.
Though there is an additional cost for the European study tour, between $4,000 and $5,000 with international airfare being between $1,500 and $1,600, for a deeply planned international food and beverage management program it is a reasonable investment for the knowledge gained.
Dario Guescini, chair of the school of hospitality and tourism management, says that the launch of this program is in sync with the opening of state-of-the-art wine facilities and event space at the Chef’s House. This will enhance the staging of our students at an in-house facility and would connect them directly to the sophisticated consumers while learning at GBC.
