Wine and Spirits Education Trust

Karl - you clearly have an axe to grind that you are not disclosing. Please come clean.

I just believe that any school that charges for "professional certification" needs to be able to back up that statement.

I am actually not an angry guy and I am not grinding an axe, but I am kinda earnest. I am sorry if I came on too strong.

I really believe in the WSET, and I also really believe they need to take some simple steps to legitimize themselves. I alerted them to this issue months ago, thinking that they would either have an answer to alleviate my concerns, or they would take steps to address the issue. I expected everything to be civil and pleasant. Instead, they just ignored my emails.

I am hoping that a public conversation about the problems will bring all the WSET-affiliated schools to the table. All they need to do is register as professional schools in their respective states, and this issue would go away.

I know the site is a bit rough around the edges, but its only a few weeks old. I think you will agree that what we have put up over the last week is pretty compelling stuff: http://tinyurl.com/wset-level

I am guessing, Karl, that the WSET (who, as far as I know just provide the certification) do not see it as their job to worry about the rules and regulations of individual states in the US. Surely it is an issue between the schools and the states they operate in. If their operations are so illegal, maybe you should try getting the states to take action. If they are not bothered, why should anyone else care?

[David M. Bueker]

Karl - you clearly do have an axe to grind or you would not have created a web site devoted to said axe.

This is such a silly discussion and makes me think of this article that was mentioned yesterday on Open Wine Consortium. The whole issue is only happening because of the ease of badmouthing reputable organisations through the internet.

As has been previously mentioned, the very well established Wine & Spirit Education Trust has for many years run valued and recognized professional wine and spirit courses in the UK, and in the past decade has expanded successfully to run these courses all over the world. They could not have come this far if they were breaking the law in New York or anywhere else for that matter. If any student finds faults with their courses or qualifications, there is no reason why these complaints couldn't be taken up directly with WSET (or their course centres - such as IWC in New York) and pursued until a satisfactory answer has been received.

In my view, running what looks like a hate campaign through the internet isn't going to help you, Karl, whether you are a disgruntled student or whether you have big plans to set up in competition. In my experience as a long-term wine educator working both with and separately from the WSET, the organisation is, quite rightly, not in the habit of stopping anyone attempting to run their own alternative wine schools to meet similar or indeed different needs providing there is no legal reason to do so.

I am actually not an angry guy and I am not grinding an axe, but I am kinda earnest. I am sorry if I came on too strong.

Karl,

If you don't tell us we'll just make something up. I,m going with "failed relationship between you and the secretary to the associate dean of the WSET stemware department".

[David M. Bueker]

Good one Sam!

It sounds like some grudge to me too.
I did one of the WSET courses, in Europe though, and I will be starting another level in february.
Very proffessional indeed. I was taught by a person certified by WSET from UK to hold the course within an Institute of tourism Studies on a small island where I live. I think that's all there is to it in EU. Don't know how it is regulated in the US but since the school itself is already World-wide recognized, I don't see why would our government ask for any other recognition or paperwork related??