We gathered in a cramped room in the Zetter Townhouse in St John’s Square off the trendy Clerkenwell Road in north London for a briefing on Beefeater 24, Pern...
“While we have certainly seen some markets struggle, the overall trend is up and once the final examinations are counted, we expect to have seen 28,000 candidates this year, a 9% increase on the previous year,” said David Wrigley MW, the WSET’s international development director.
The trust’s position as a global provider is further reinforced by the distribution of these candidates. Some 17,900 of them (64% of the total) study with one or other of the 196 training organisations we work with in 55 countries.
“Our investment in languages other than English has helped drive some of these numbers – we publish materials and examinations in 15 other languages now,” said Wrigley.
“In other cases we’ve benefited from external initiatives such as the Hong Kong government’s drive to make Hong Kong a wine hub for Asia: our numbers there are up almost 30%,” he said.
“We’ve also seen a 57% jump in numbers from Australia following our profile-raising trips there, and the creation of our first specialist module in Australian wine. With the other new products we have coming on stream such as the wine service qualifications, and our online learning platform, we’re looking ahead with a lot of optimism,” said Wrigley.
